How to spend 2 days at Epcot

[Poola]

We will be in Epcot the last week of May. Since the flower and garden fest will still be going on, I want to spend 2 days in this park so we can enjoy everything. I have seen several strategies that say you should do one day in Future World and a second day in World Showcase. However, our DD will be with us and she's only 8. I'm afraid she will be bored stiff with one day in World Showcase. So I'm thinking we should do 1 day in "east" Future World and then continue on to the east side of World Showcase, maybe stopping for the day when we get to American Adventure. Then the next day, we can do "west" Future World and continue on to Canada, France, etc. Does anyone else split up their visits to Epcot this way, and does it work well? Also, we have a dinner reservation at Beaches n Cream the second evening. How much trouble will it be to return to our resort (WL) for an afternoon break and then return to Epcot to get to our dinner reservation and do Illuminations? The park is so big, there doesn't seem to be any ideal way to pull this off.

 

[Alesia]

That's pretty much how we do it, although we need to have at least another half day as well. And we never decide on a place to stop - we just keep going until we're done. FWIW, even when my daughter was young, she was never bored in the world showcase. There is so much to see and the entertainers are so much fun - it was actually the part of WDW she liked most when she was your daughters age, even though she's a thrill ride junkie.

As far as afternoon breaks go, I can't say. We find that they wear us out more than just staying in the park. We never go back to the resort unless we are completely done for the day.

 

[alliecat523]

I think taking the afternoon break will be helpful. We found the WL buses very easy and convenient. Just make sure you build in enough time to walk out, wait for the bus and the ride back (and all that in reverse too).

 

[IrishNYC]

DD, who was 5 at the time, loved doing Kidcot at Epcot. It became a challenge for her to find the station in each country, and she loved visiting with the international CMs. We spent 2 or three days in Epcot - one entire day, and one or 2 partial days.

 

[ktlm]

My DD (9) loves World Showcase. We spend more time there than in FW. The Agent P adventures are one of her favorite things at WDW. She also loves the character meet and greets, the entertainers, the boat ride in Mexico, the movies about different countries and looking through all the shops. She liked the Kidcot stations when she was younger, but she has outgrown those; however, if your child has not done the KidCot stations before at her age, if you buy her one of the passports, it might be fun for her to go to the Kidcot station in each country and get it stamped.

What we do is start at rope drop in FW. The first day we usually do everything we can on the Soarin side of the park. Then we typically go over for a TS lunch at WS at 12:00 or 12:30 (unless it is Food &Wine, then we head over right at 11 to hit the booths which are less crowded earlier in the day - doesn't Flower and Garden have some food booths now?). We rarely make it to the other side of FW before moving over to WS, except now with FP+- we trek over there if we have something set up there- usually Mission Space when it was not Tier One. Biergarten is a must do TS for DH and DD at least one of the days (during Food &Wine- we will do that for dinner while the booths are crowded instead of at lunch). Once we are finished with TS lunch, we go to one end of WS, usually Mexico, and start working our way around (if it is Food and Wine- then we just start hitting the booths at 11:00 a.m. on the Mexico end and start working around). We almost never make it all the way through WS by closing even starting that early as DD just really loves that side of the park. Our 2nd day, we start back in FW and do the same thing- but we will either start WS where we left off or at the other end working toward where we left off. FW, we start on the Test Track side that morning typically and try to catch everything we did not do the first day- but DD usually does want to go back and hit FW things on the other side a little bit too. We have been going with DD every year since she was 2, and because she loves WS and wants to spend most of the time there, even with 2 days, we have yet to find the 45 minutes to do Ellen's Energy Adventure! When she was little, we didn't do it because we were worried she would suddenly need a bathroom break during the 45 minute ride and it would be bad- now we just never seem to find the time.

We don't do afternoon breaks. For us, we just lose too much time in the day. We get our rest break by either doing the TS lunch, sitting down and having a snack in WS, or by sitting in American Adventure or one of the movies that has seats. Ellen's Energy Adventure would make for a good break, but we never seem to make it back to the FW side once we have moved over to WS.

 

[lustergirl]

I split the World Showcase into two days. I do half one day and the other half another day. There is so much to see and so much walking that you get tired.

 

[Miss Frankie J]

I always plan at least 2 days in Epcot and I find that dividing the park East/West works out fantastic especially with the Tiering FP+ system in Epcot.

I found that during the F&W Festival in 2014 I didn't want to take a break because it would eat up too much time, the weather wasn't too warm and there was so much to see and do. We divided the park the same way and saw and ate a ton! however I wish I had spent one more day there. You might find that you may feel that way about the F&G Festival.

However When we stayed onsite in June 2015, we took an afternoon break around 2pm after our Lunch at Biergarten. We took the boat towards the front of the world showcase and walked to the buses that took us back to our resort. We got back to our resort around 3pm and took a break till 5:40 and made it back to our dinner reservation with plenty of time in Japan which was at 7:10. however it was just my Boyfriend and I traveling that time and during a non-special event. We needed the break from the heat. It took around 45 minutes travel time to get from WS to Coronado Springs and the same going from Coronado Springs to WS. The break felt great but it did eat a huge chunk of time but it was a worthy sacrifice to keep my party happy.

 

[nilla]

We never do less than 3 days in Epcot. This year, we're doing 4

We've done the Futureworld the first day, WS the second plan, but the second always also involves rides on TT, Spaceship Earth, etc.