In the last few months of 2023, EPCOT is BUSY.
Crowds in EPCOT
With new character meet and greets, Disney100 celebrations, the Food & Wine Festival, and a brand-new attraction opening, there are plenty of reasons to visit the parks. Right now, Journey of Water — Inspired by Moana is drawing in quite a few guests because Annual Passholder and Disney Vacation Club previews are in progress. And if you were hoping to stop by the park this upcoming weekend, we have a warning for you!
When we checked early in the morning on September 29th, Disney Park Passes for EPCOT were sold out for both today (Friday) and the upcoming Sunday — October 1st. Around 10AM, Park Passes were refilled for both of those days, but we’ve seen availability come and go frequently over the past week.
EPCOT
Annual Passholder previews for Journey of Water began on September 24th and run through today. There will be no previews tomorrow, September 30th, but they’ll pick back up next week and run from October 1st to 4th. On the first day of previews, which was a Sunday, we experienced an incredibly crowded EPCOT, with lines so long to get into Journey of Water that Disney had to open a virtual queue.
Journey of Water preview
The virtual queue hasn’t been necessary every day of previews, but we noticed it in use again on the morning of Friday, September 29th. Boarding groups were getting called back fairly quickly (almost immediately, in fact), but Passholders were still required to enter the queue in order to experience Journey of Water.
Annual Passholder preview crowds
If you are an Annual Passholder and you would like to check out the new attraction, you’re required to have a Disney Park Pass for EPCOT on the day of your visit. Guests who enter the park after 2PM without a reservation or those who are Park Hopping from another park will not be allowed to do a preview. So if you want to visit today or Sunday, make sure to snag a Park Pass quickly before they sell out again!
©Disney
We’ll keep you updated with more information about these previews and the crowds in EPCOT in the coming days, so stay tuned to DFB. We’ve got all the important news you need to know to plan your trip!
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Thank you for the update! A week ago I decided to drive the 2.5 hours down and get my passholder magnet on 10/1, but it was BOOKED!! I read this article and was able to snag a park reservation for Epcot on 10/1!
See you Sunday at Epcot!!
No line at all for Journey of Water. Maybe since it rained most of the day! We went around 5 pm and walked right through.