How do YOU tour EPCOT?

[McFlea]

One of our two EPCOT days looks like this: 4/23, crowd level 5, recommended park per easywdw. Arrive at RD, head straight to TT. Tour FW until WS opens, head there ~11:00. Return to FW for FP's at Soarin (3:00-4:00), The Seas (4:25-5:25) and Spaceship Earth (5:25-6:25), with 4:00 dinner at Garden Grill.
I realize this leaves very little chance for further FP's, but I'm ok with that.
So we're doing a World Showcase sandwich on Future World bread. Makes sense to me, but I'm open to EPCOT touring ideas. FP's for our 2nd day (4/26) range from 9:40 - 1:45, but as of right now it looks like there is flexibility if I want to adjust. So tell me, how do YOU schedule EPCOT?

 

[BayouMickey]

Don't put SE in your plan. Except for RD, SE earth is walk on most of the day.

 

[GillianP1301]

We do hoppers and I tend to break up our Epcot Days because I like to get there multiple times for the restaurants. I have two half days that are pretty much dedicated to FW and another half day for WS. I also have one evening in there where it's really just to go and eat and maybe hit up one or two favourite attractions. I only FP at EP on the FW days.

 

[rcraw45425]

Don't put SE in your plan. Except for RD, SE earth is walk on most of the day.

Agree with this

 

[lroger01]

Do half and half. Tour the left side of Future World and World Showcase on day 1, and the right side on another day. Less walking and more variety. Plan your ADR's to coincide with the side you're touring on. With this plan you can use a tier one at TT on day 1 and a tier 1 at Soarin on day 2 giving you more arrival time flexibility in the morning. Do Illuminations on day 1 (in case it's canceled) then on day 2 use that time to reride Future World favorites.

 

[rcraw45425]

We generally do FW in the morning and then WS dinner followed by walking the countries. Usually gravitate back to WS each evening

 

[JimmyV]

While it is tempting to want to go to WS right when it opens at 11:00, there is no real need to do so. Assuming a 9:00 opening, two hours in FW is more of a "ride and run" approach, jumping from ride to ride without taking in the true meaning and pleasure of the pavilions. You could go over to Innoventions and ride Sum of All Thrills and then dart out of the pavilion. But why? Lots of cool stuff in there to explore. It would be easy to spend an hour in there. With three teenagers, you may very well find that they want to spend far more time exploring Future World than walking around gift shops in World Showcase. You obviously know your family better than we do. But don't be so quick to conclude that FW is something that can be knocked off quickly, going from ride to ride. Ellen's Energy Adventure is 45 minutes all on its own. And we can kill 30 minutes just in the Club Cool. (Must. Try. Beverly.) If your second day at Epcot is going to be more heavily weighted toward FW, then your Day One plan makes sense. Otherwise, build in more time for FW. I know that there is a natural tendency to want to hustle over to WS. But FW can be a "pretty much all day park" in and of itself.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

One of our two EPCOT days looks like this: 4/23, crowd level 5, recommended park per easywdw. Arrive at RD, head straight to TT. Tour FW until WS opens, head there ~11:00. Return to FW for FP's at Soarin (3:00-4:00), The Seas (4:25-5:25) and Spaceship Earth (5:25-6:25), with 4:00 dinner at Garden Grill.
I realize this leaves very little chance for further FP's, but I'm ok with that.
So we're doing a World Showcase sandwich on Future World bread. Makes sense to me, but I'm open to EPCOT touring ideas. FP's for our 2nd day (4/26) range from 9:40 - 1:45, but as of right now it looks like there is flexibility if I want to adjust. So tell me, how do YOU schedule EPCOT?

I don't see how you will be able to use a Fast pass that overlaps with your dinner. I would personally slide it out to allow more buffer. The one thing that hangs us up with ADRs is the time it takes to be seated. Some places are more efficient than others and some are just slow.

EPCOT is also a place I would not be too concerned for a 4th FP unless you were interested in repeats. I think your plan is fine since you plan 2 days at EPCOT.

Our day has us at TT at park open, Soarin' FP at 10, ADR at 11:30, and the SE 12:45-1:45 giving is over 2 hours to come back to it followed by Nemo. We will be utilizing baby swap and will save those for later if the timing ends up being too tight for the baby watcher to catch a ride before the next thing. We are not planning to stay all day. The afternoon FP are there if needed or desired.

But I try to not have overlaps and allow buffer in case the ADR runs a bit long. That said, not sure a FP with Nemo will be needed, so it may be an non-issue.

 

[Dr Gevil]

While it is tempting to want to go to WS right when it opens at 11:00, there is no real need to do so. Assuming a 9:00 opening, two hours in FW is more of a "ride and run" approach, jumping from ride to ride without taking in the true meaning and pleasure of the pavilions. You could go over to Innoventions and ride Sum of All Thrills and then dart out of the pavilion. But why? Lots of cool stuff in there to explore. It would be easy to spend an hour in there. With three teenagers, you may very well find that they want to spend far more time exploring Future World than walking around gift shops in World Showcase. You obviously know your family better than we do. But don't be so quick to conclude that FW is something that can be knocked off quickly, going from ride to ride. Ellen's Energy Adventure is 45 minutes all on its own. And we can kill 30 minutes just in the Club Cool. (Must. Try. Beverly.) If your second day at Epcot is going to be more heavily weighted toward FW, then your Day One plan makes sense. Otherwise, build in more time for FW. I know that there is a natural tendency to want to hustle over to WS. But FW can be a "pretty much all day park" in and of itself.

JimmyV, I knew I liked you. You can join my evil organization anytime. (evil laugh in background)

 

[MrsJobba1]

hi

I'm Struggling choosing my Epcot fast pass options. I LOVE SOARIN -it's my favourite ride- I will be staying at boardwalk and walking to Epcot for 9am rope drop . I then want to go straight to SOARIN. Then use my 1st fast pass to ride SOARIN again. I don't do thrill rides so am not interested in test track - but need to choose 2 more fast passes so then I can try for more SOARIN later on day .

Any advice on 2 other fast pass options? I have an ADR for Tokyo dining FOR, then will look round WS.

Thanks

 

[khcruise]

Agree with this

Is this still the case these days? At noon MDE is showing a wait time of 35 mins and TP shows this as a 4 crowd level. I know pre fast pass+ this was usually a walk on but is it still? I was planning on getting a FP+ for this because when I check the wait time apps it looks like it usually has a wait anymore.

 

[JimmyV]

Return to FW for FP's at Soarin (3:00-4:00), The Seas (4:25-5:25) and Spaceship Earth (5:25-6:25), with 4:00 dinner at Garden Grill.

I don't see how you will be able to use a Fast pass that overlaps with your dinner.

• Arrive at The Land Pavilion at 2:55.
• Use Soarin' FP when window opens at 3:00
• Exit ride and get in line for Living With the Land. (On a "5" day, this should be a short line).
• Exit ride and head upstairs to Garden Grill for 4:00 ADR.
• Finish dinner and head to Living Seas.
• Use FP for Nemo at the tail end of its window-5:25
• Enjoy the Living Seas exhibits from 5:30-6:15.
• Head to Spaceship Earth.
• Use FP for Spaceship Earth at the tail end of its window.

As I noted in my post earlier, this is a very compressed schedule and probably does not allow for a full exploration of the fun stuff in the pavilions. But it can be done. It assumes that you are riding Living with the Land with a short to modest wait. And it assumes that you can eat your "Family Style All You Care To Eat" dinner in an hour to an hour-ten.

 

[hedberg1661]

Personally I RD Soarin...then head to TT. Other than that I just hit the other FW rides as I please leaving SE as my last ride on the way out (assuming I came in the main entrance). I also recommend leaving time to browse through Mouse Gears. This is on (if not the) best stores on property.

Once WS opens I head out to explore and snack/drink my way around the world (or even just part of it as FP+ allows).

 

[BayouMickey]

Is this still the case these days? At noon MDE is showing a wait time of 35 mins and TP shows this as a 4 crowd level. I know pre fast pass+ this was usually a walk on but is it still? I was planning on getting a FP+ for this because when I check the wait time apps it looks like it usually has a wait anymore.

Yes it's still pretty walk on after the first influx and before park closing you might see an increase.

 

[RustManFan]

Ride SSE when most people are headed to WS? I have only seen long lines there at RD

 

[khcruise]

Yes it's still pretty walk on after the first influx and before park closing you might see an increase.

Great, thanks for the info.

 

[W.E.D.]

We take two days for touring EPCOT. One day for FW, one day for WS. We also do hoppers and end up at WS several nights during our trip for dinner.

 

[Mikie]

Is this still the case these days? At noon MDE is showing a wait time of 35 mins and TP shows this as a 4 crowd level. I know pre fast pass+ this was usually a walk on but is it still? I was planning on getting a FP+ for this because when I check the wait time apps it looks like it usually has a wait anymore.

I think you'll find lots of walk-on opportunities throughout the day, but I wouldn't say it's definitely walk-on "all day". On our 2 Epcot days in October, we saw lots of walk-on times, but also, strangely, lots of times where it had waits if 30 min+ - and not just at rope drop. Also, these seemed to be real waits, not just exaggerated posted waits as we were crisscrossing FW a lot and the lines outside were quite long sometimes.

So. . . If you have something else to use a FP on, by all means pick it, but if you aren't really interested in anything else, Spaceship Earth FP isn't always a waste.

 

[5onadime]

I think I am alone in this..... But I think your plan sounds very good. The last several times I have been in EPCOT there has been a line for space ship earth. Not just at opening but all through the day.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I think you'll find lots of walk-on opportunities throughout the day, but I wouldn't say it's definitely walk-on "all day". On our 2 Epcot days in October, we saw lots of walk-on times, but also, strangely, lots of times where it had waits if 30 min+ - and not just at rope drop. Also, these seemed to be real waits, not just exaggerated posted waits as we were crisscrossing FW a lot and the lines outside were quite long sometimes.

So. . . If you have something else to use a FP on, by all means pick it, but if you aren't really interested in anything else, Spaceship Earth FP isn't always a waste.

That is our thoughts and experience. You could forgo a SE pass if you want, but what do you replace it with? The times we have used one, we bypassed a line. It's size is irrelevant when Journey has no wait and Captain EO is meh.

OP--don't forget about other FW opportunities. My older children enjoy Sum of All Thrills. No FP available and lines can be long. That may be a good use of your FW time to check out.