Moments ago, we showed you what the crowd levels looked like at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but now it’s time to get some perspective on what EPCOT’s like on the first day of ITS historical grand reopening!
Not to mention, today is the first day of A Taste of EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival featuring more than 20 marketplace food booths scattered throughout the World Showcase. Let’s see who’s arrived to do some wining and dining!
Morning
Since we’re staying at Disney’s Pop Century Resort, we took the Disney Skyliner over to EPCOT today. EPCOT has two entrances — the main entrance as well as a secondary entrance located at the International Gateway next to the World Showcase.
Temperature and bag checks are set up at both entrances. We arrived at EPCOT right around 11AM this morning when the park opened. Although there was a little bit of a wait this morning, the socially distanced line moved pretty quickly at the International Gateway entrance.
And once we passed through the checkpoint, we were welcomed by some World Showcase Cast Members holding flags from countries all over the world. It was pretty moving displayed and we might have gotten a bit misty-eyed.
And so far, the crowds have stayed pretty manageable. The World Showcase is by no means empty, but it hasn’t felt too crowded walking around in the open areas.
From our perspective so far, guests are doing a good job social distancing and spreading out while they stroll and shop. The festival merchandise booths are selling some of the Flower and Garden stuff we saw released last March!
And so far, there have been plenty of open tables for guests to enjoy their snacks and drinks at. Since the tables are socially distanced, you can temporarily remove your mask while you eat and sip when you’re standing at one.
We’re making out way over to Future World to check on the crowd levels over by Spaceship Earth next and we’ll be updating this post throughout the day so you can get a better sense of what the attendance is like at A Taste of EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival in the morning vs. the afternoon.
Afternoon
And now we’re back to show you how things have been for the last couple of hours as EPCOT’s grand reopening day begins to wind down!
Future World continues to be pretty calm and peaceful as most guests are either absorbed into rides, restaurants, shops, or relaxation stations.
At one point we did notice Spaceship Earth‘s line extended beyond its queue area and reached a 15-minute wait time, but the line quickly disappeared and the posted wait time has stayed around 5 minutes for most of the day.
Click here to see what ECPOT’s wait times have been like on its reopening day!
We got to wave to Elsa as she strolled by on her Frozen Promenade! Since parades and character meet and greets are on hiatus for the time being, Characters randomly appear at the various parks throughout the day in special Character Cavalcades.
Over in Norway, the queue for Frozen Ever After appeared much longer than it actually was. The line stretched all the way through the pavilion into the World Showcase but was only about a 30-minute wait for most of the day.
We also explored a few more pavilions that were super chill like France…
…Morocco was also very empty.
There were very few guests shopping inside Mitsukoshi (the giant department store in Japan’s pavilion) when we stopped by as well.
Guests were trickling in and out of the World Showplace Tent where four different food booths can be found, but heads up — you’ll need to enter a virtual queue in order to visit them!
Stay tuned for more photos and food booth reviews from EPCOT which we’ll be posting shortly! Until then, you can check out what the wait times have been like today at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Click here to see how quickly Rise of the Resistance’s boarding groups filled up at 10AM here!
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What do you think of the crowds at EPCOT? Are they what you were expecting? Let us know in the comments below!
Lisa says
Is the Beauty and the Beast sing-along open? I haven’t been able to find out through the MDE app!
DFB Sarah says
Lisa, at present, it is NOT open.
Adam Y. says
Hey There! I assume they have put the pin trading with the Cast Members on hold for the time being? I was wondering if you could confirm that?
DFB Sarah says
Hi, Adam. We are still seeing pin boards but not pin trading with CMs.