the entrance to Epcot

The Resorts Gal Guide to

EPCOT

This guide shares our most popular planning articles for Epcot. We begin with a brief overview highlighting Epcot’s history. We then discuss each park section, attractions, entertainment, characters, dining, and other planning aspects.

Toward the bottom of the page, you’ll find a magazine-style list of articles starting with our pavilion series. These articles detail the pavilions at the front of the park and each country in the World Showcase. We discuss what to expect regarding rides, dining, and shopping for each area. Epcot is a tremendous park, and we try to highlight the unique aspects of each country.

After that, we list our attraction articles. These articles provide specifics for each attraction, including things like eligibility for early theme park hours, extended hours, and height requirements. We also provide tips and walkthrough experiences with photos for each ride.

Lastly, we have entertainment, character, and planning resources for Epcot. We hope you’ll find this guide useful when planning your Walt Disney World vacation.

a medallion of Spaceship Earth in the newly opened area at Epcot with Spaceship Earth in the backdrop

EPCOT History

EPCOT opened on October 1, 1982, as the second of the Walt Disney World theme parks. At the time, it was named EPCOT Center, with EPCOT being an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Walt Disney’s original idea for EPCOT was to be a residential neighborhood called the Florida Project. However, that idea never came to fruition. Imagineers took some of Walt’s ideas and concepts into consideration when creating the park. Over time, and given the park’s popularity, the name Epcot stuck, and the “center” was dropped.

Dreamer's Point at Epcot

EPCOT Areas and Countries

Formerly Future World and the World Showcase, the park is now broken into four unique worlds.

  • World Celebration
  • World Discovery
  • World Nature
  • World Showcase

World Showcase Countries include Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, the American Adventure, Japan, Morocco, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

EPCOT Attractions

Here is a list of attractions and entertainment Disney highlights on the park’s map.

  • World Celebration
    • Spaceship Earth
    • Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival
    • Journey Into Imagination with Figment
    • Meet Mickey and Friends
  • World Discovery
    • Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
    • Mission: SPACE (Green or Orange)
    • Advanced Training Lab
    • Test Track
    • Play Zone
  • World Nature
    • Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana
    • Awesome Planet
    • Soarin’
    • Living with the Land
    • The Seas with Nemo and Friends
    • Turtle Talk with Crush
    • SeaBase
  • World Showcase
    • Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
    • Meet Anna and Elsa at the Royal Sommerhus
    • Mexico Folk Art Gallery
    • Frozen Ever After
    • Reflections of China
    • America Gardens Theater
    • The American Adventure
    • American Heritage Gallery
    • New: Portraits of Courage Limited Exhibit
    • Bijutsu-kan Gallery
    • Gallery of Arts and History
    • Palais du Cinema
      • Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along
      • Impressions de France
    • Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
    • Canada Far and Wide in Circle-Vision 360

Walt Disney World Resort and select other hotel guests can participate in early entry to Epcot each day. The park opens 30 minutes before the scheduled opening. We have a list of eligible hotels for early theme park entry.

Looking for a cheat sheet? Make sure to get a copy of our free Epcot ride spreadsheet. It has a tab for the other three parks and will help you with the planning process.

Click Here for Disney’s Ride Refurbishment Calendar (This will give you an idea of whether or not any attractions will be closed during your vacation.)

EPCOT Entertainment Offerings

  • Luminous The Symphony of Us is the park’s nighttime fireworks offering. Times for each night’s performance are listed in the entertainment section of the My Disney Experience app. Guests gather around the World Showcase Lagoon each evening for this special performance. We have a separate guide with our favorite viewing locations for Luminous: The Symphony of Us.
  • Disney Ducktales World Showcase Adventure: Discover a series of mysteries throughout the World Showcase. Use the Play Disney Parks mobile app to help solve them!
  • KIDCOT Fun Stops: Each country in the World Showcase has a small activity where children can participate.
  • Festivals: Epcot is home to four festivals throughout the year: the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival, the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival, the Epcot International Festival of the Arts, and the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays. (We keep a separate page with Epcot’s Festival Dates for each year.)
flowers in bloom at Epcot's International Flower and Garden Festival

EPCOT has many unique entertainment offerings in each country. Showtimes for most performances will be listed in the My Disney Experience app on the day of your visit—several of these offer live music.

  • Atlas Fusion (Morocco Pavilion)
  • Command Performance (United Kingdom Pavilion)
  • Entertainment at Canada Mill State (Canada Pavilion)
  • Entertainment at Germany Gazebo (Germany Pavilion)
  • Forces of Nature by AntiGravity (World Celebration)
  • JAMMitors (World Celebration)
  • Mariachi Cobre (Mexico Pavilion)
  • Marimba de las Americas (Mexico Pavilion)
  • Matsuriza (Japan Pavilion)
  • Sergio (Italy Pavilion)
  • Voices of Liberty (American Adventure)
Walt, the dreamer statue at World Celebration, Dreamer's Point Epcot

Attractions with a Height Requirement at EPCOT

The following attractions have a height requirement:

  • Mission: Space Green (40″)
  • Soarin’ Around the World (40″)
  • Test Track (40″)
  • Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (42″)
  • Mission: Space Orange (44″)

Attractions with Lightning Lanes

The following attractions require an individual Lightning Lane Single Pass purchase to skip the standby queue.

  • Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

*If a virtual queue is required, you must obtain one to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind via the standby queue. Disney has a list of current virtual queues on their site. We recommend checking the status of any virtual queues before your visit. They are subject to change.

The following attractions are part of Lightning Lane Multi Pass:

  • Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
  • Frozen Ever After
  • Journey into Imagination with Figment
  • Living with the Land
  • Mission: SPACE – Green
  • Mission: SPACE – Orange
  • Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
  • Soarin’ Around the World
  • Spaceship Earth
  • Test Track (Closed for Extensive Refurbishment)
  • The Seas with Nemo & Friends
  • Turtle Talk with Crush

Learn More>> Everything You Need to Know About Lightning Lanes at Disney World

Resorts Gal Ride Selector

Our ride selector tool simplifies the process of choosing Lightning Lanes and desired time ranges. You’ll have a plan formed for each park day in minutes!

Where Should We Head First?

This decision will primarily be based on where you enter the park. Guests who enter near the International Gateway tend to head to the France Pavilion to experience Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, a trackless dark ride. However, there are no other attractions near this area. So, you will be somewhat isolated afterward and have to walk to the front of the park like everyone else.

Based on availability, guests who enter at the park’s main entrance tend to go directly to Test Track or Frozen Ever After.

What hotels use the International Gateway entrance?

  • Disney’s Beach and Yacht Club
  • Disney’s Swan and Dolphin (Swan Reserve)
  • Disney’s Boardwalk Inn
  • Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
  • Disney’s Riviera Resort
  • Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
  • Disney’s Pop Century Resort
a fountain in front of Remy's Ratatouille Adventure at Epcot

Characters

Epcot is an excellent park for meeting characters. A Mickey and Friends meet-and-greet is available in the World Celebration area of the park. Guests can meet Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Goofy at this location.

We cover character meet-and-greets extensively in our Epcot Character Guide. That guide lists every character who meets in the park regularly. We update it often. With so many character meet-and-greets, we can’t list them all here. But a few highlights include:

Again, only a few of the characters meet in the park. Our character guide offers a comprehensive list.

Anna and Elsa at Epcot

Dining at EPCOT

From quick service to table service restaurants, Epcot has many dining options. Each country offers some sort of cuisine specific to its region. For instance, guests can pick up a treat like school bread in the Norway Pavilion. Or you might order a gigantic pizza from Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria in the Italy Pavilion. Guests looking for a classic steak dinner might try Le Cellier Steakhouse in the Canada Pavilion. Nine Dragons offers Asian cuisine in the China Pavilion, or you might prefer to have a chef prepare your food in front of you at a restaurant like Teppan Edo in the Japan Pavilion.

Our favorite quick service is Regal Eagle Smokehouse in the American Adventure. We also sometimes grab a bite to eat at Connections Cafe toward the front of the park in the World Celebration area.

When planning dining at Epcot, you’ll want to consider the time of year you’re visiting and whether or not you’ll want to partake in the festival offerings. Epcot has four festivals throughout the year, each offering various booths with special food selections. Some guests opt to eat their way through Epcot, sacrificing dining reservations for festival food. Others might prefer the break that a sit-down meal provides. Just keep in mind that it’s difficult to do both. Guests who plan too many dining reservations might regret it later. Or, if you don’t care for eating out of a cardboard box every 50 feet, you might wish you’d planned a more formal meal.

a kids' meal from Regal Eagle Smokehouse at Epcot

Tickets, Transportation, and Parking

Tickets for Epcot can be purchased online or through an authorized travel agent or reseller. We use Firefly Travels for all of our reservations. If you’re staying at a Walt Disney World Resort Hotel, you might prefer to book a room + ticket package instead of purchasing individual tickets.

Bus, monorail, Skyliner, or boat transportation is provided from Disney World Resort Hotels to Epcot. Bus service is also offered from Epcot to Disney’s Animal Kingdom (after 10:00 a.m.). Guests will need to walk, boat, or take the Skyliner from Epcot to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. For Magic Kingdom, you will need to take the Epcot monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center. Then, you’ll transfer to the Express monorail.

You cannot take a bus from Epcot to Disney Springs. To get to Disney Springs, exit at the International Gateway and walk (or boat) to Disney’s Boardwalk Inn or Beach Club. Then, take a bus from either hotel to Disney Springs.

Annual Passholders and guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort can enjoy complimentary parking at Epcot. Other guests will have to pay for parking. You can read more in our guide to parking at Walt Disney World. Courtesy trams are provided from the parking lot to Epcot’s main entrance. Don’t forget to take a photo of where you parked or use the car locator in the My Disney Experience app.

the monorail passing through Epcot

Browse All EPCOT Articles

Epcot Attraction Articles

Epcot Planning Articles

Epcot Festival Articles

The fountain with the Imagination Pavilion in the backdrop at Epcot.

More Planning

Are you planning a Walt Disney World vacation? You might benefit from some of our other popular planning resources. You can sign up for our 5-lesson quick start course below or browse all of our complimentary courses on the Resorts Gal Roadmap.

We specialize in covering the resort hotels at Walt Disney World and have extensive coverage of almost every aspect of each resort. You’ll find everything from photos of what’s available in the resort gift shop to pictures of the pools and rooms.

Our Disney World Dining Handbook offers a complete overview of everything you need to know about dining upfront. It also links to guides that discuss the Disney Dining Plan, best dining spots, and subjects like character dining in more detail.

Our most popular guides fall under the Disney World Transportation category. We have a transportation guide for every single resort hotel at Walt Disney World. We also have extensive guides that discuss using the monorail, boats, buses, and the Disney Skyliner.

Lastly, if you’re hoping to meet characters at Disney World, we have you covered. We have photos of all the characters who meet regularly in the parks and a few rare ones! Or you might like to browse our Disney World Park Guide to learn more about what’s available in each of the four parks.

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