Is epcot worth half day?

[FromKansas]

Hello all!
We will be there January 2nd through the 7th . My current plan is to have two Hollywood studio days, one animal kingdom day, and one full magic kingdom day. Magic Express picks us up at 5:00 on the 7th, we are planning to go to magic kingdom for a bit before that for a partial day.

My question is, on the 2nd we arrive at the airport at 10:45. Using magic Express I expect to be at the poly by 2:00. Is it worth going to Epcot for just a few hours? It will be me, husband, and three children (4, 7, 10). Epcot is open until 8:00, but it is supposed to be the busiest Park that day according to touring plans.

If there is Park availability, and we get everything we want done at Hollywood studios in one day, I would not be opposed to changing the second Hollywood studio day.

 

[AngieInOH]

Yes, I think it worth at least 1/2 day. Soarin', Test Track, Frozen, Nemo, Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth. We love Via Napoli. Don't put too much value into Touring Plans.

 

[EMHDad]

Yes, I think it worth at least 1/2 day. Soarin', Test Track, Frozen, Nemo, Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth. We love Via Napoli. Don't put too much value into Touring Plans.

Just curious your thinking on not putting too much value into touringplans?

 

[AngieInOH]

Just curious your thinking on not putting too much value into touringplans?

I've also used Touring Plans. But I wouldn't let it dictate whether you go to a park or not. Many times they are not right. We always visit MK on our first and last day. I wouldn't let Touring Plans dictate that I should go to a different park. I also think covid makes things even more unpredictable.

 

[Rockbro]

Just curious your thinking on not putting too much value into touringplans?

I would imagine that poster said that because of park capacity, lines, quite simply the unknown. I would not, either.

 

[kwdw]

I think EPCOT is good for a "half day" - especially since it makes 5 park days for you.

I think the reason folks aren't relying on any crowd predicter calendar at Disney right now is because those places use patterns in Disney behavior that aren't the same right now. Special events have been cancelled, park hours changed, EMH and DAK gone, no parties or firework shows or Disney runs, and parks capped at 25% capacity with socially distance lines and no FP's. The metrics they used are not the same.

In addition - sometimes you just need to plan your overall time the best you can - and that might mean you head to a park even when any Disney fan could tell you the park is going to be "extra busy" by looking at the calendar. I've headed to a park on what I know will be an exceptionally crowded day because that's how the whole trip fits together best for me.

 

[silver236]

Hello all!
We will be there January 2nd through the 7th . My current plan is to have two Hollywood studio days, one animal kingdom day, and one full magic kingdom day. Magic Express picks us up at 5:00 on the 7th, we are planning to go to magic kingdom for a bit before that for a partial day.

My question is, on the 2nd we arrive at the airport at 10:45. Using magic Express I expect to be at the poly by 2:00. Is it worth going to Epcot for just a few hours? It will be me, husband, and three children (4, 7, 10). Epcot is open until 8:00, but it is supposed to be the busiest Park that day according to touring plans.

If there is Park availability, and we get everything we want done at Hollywood studios in one day, I would not be opposed to changing the second Hollywood studio day.

This is actually what my DW and I did at the end of Sept. We got there on a Friday so we were lucky enough to have a 9PM close. We got the park around 3. Got on everything we wanted (Soarin multiple times) except TT and Frozen. We were in line for TT when it went down for the rest of the night otherwise we would have gotten on that too. And we were able to get everything we wanted from the F/W booths. I'd say go for it!

 

[FromKansas]

I won't hinge my time on specifically what touring plans says. But I was more mentioning it due to the fact that I know lines are long right now. I don't want to go and only be able to hit 2 or 3 attractions. We've never been to Epcot. We've been to the other parks before.

 

[CyndiLooWho]

Even if you can't get on any rides at EPCOT, it would make a fantastic park just to eat your way through. It's one of our favorites, even with the construction walls up.

We like to snack our way through the World Showcase area, and they have exhibits, films, etc that you can do. The gift shops there are amazing, you have the EPCOT versions of the cavalcades, you can see Mary Poppins and/or Alice behind the UK pavilion, and you can ride the skyliner out and back if all else fails. There really is a lot there to do besides the rides. And I would expect that you can ride at least a few rides.

 

[nherbert]

Assuming everything goes to plan and you are at Poly before 2pm I would say go for it. The price difference btw a 4 and 5 day park ticket is small. Epcot is great even if you only do a couple of rides. You can ride the monorail at least too and from Epcot. If the lines are terrible and kids sad, exit at UK, and go ride the skyliner it’s free and so much fun the first time and any line moves very fast. You can get a great meal at Epcot. There is lots to see and do.

 

[disneygirlsng]

Assuming everything goes to plan and you are at Poly before 2pm I would say go for it. The price difference btw a 4 and 5 day park ticket is small. Epcot is great even if you only do a couple of rides. You can ride the monorail at least too and from Epcot. If the lines are terrible and kids sad, exit at UK, and go ride the skyliner it’s free and so much fun the first time and any line moves very fast. You can get a great meal at Epcot. There is lots to see and do.

The monorail to Epcot is not running and I'm not sure I would expect it to be running by January.

 

[SugarSweetLee]

Hello all!
We will be there January 2nd through the 7th . My current plan is to have two Hollywood studio days, one animal kingdom day, and one full magic kingdom day. Magic Express picks us up at 5:00 on the 7th, we are planning to go to magic kingdom for a bit before that for a partial day.

My question is, on the 2nd we arrive at the airport at 10:45. Using magic Express I expect to be at the poly by 2:00. Is it worth going to Epcot for just a few hours? It will be me, husband, and three children (4, 7, 10). Epcot is open until 8:00, but it is supposed to be the busiest Park that day according to touring plans.

If there is Park availability, and we get everything we want done at Hollywood studios in one day, I would not be opposed to changing the second Hollywood studio day.

Hey! We will be overlapping some days for our trip in Jan I think the only thing that might be worth considering is that Epcot always picks up more local passholder visitors on weekends because of dining/drinking, so it will be busier because of that. That isn't enough reason not to go, though

 

[FromKansas]

The monorail to Epcot is not running and I'm not sure I would expect it to be running by January.

I think we are planning on walking to the TTC to use the monorail. I'm still in the beginning stages of planning and trying to figure out the best plan to get to DHS before park opening.

 

[disneygirlsng]

I think we are planning on walking to the TTC to use the monorail. I'm still in the beginning stages of planning and trying to figure out the best plan to get to DHS before park opening.

The monorail from TTC to Epcot is not running, which is what I was saying. But yes, you can walk to the TTC to get the monorail to MK.

 

[DebLovesPooh]

Epcot is my second favorite park after Animal Kingdom. Spaceship Earth and Frozen are must-do’s for us every trip and we spend most of the afternoon in the World Showcase, so I think it’s worth at least a half a day for you, especially if you haven’t been before.

 

[Heather07438]

If you've never been to Epcot before... you must go

 

[Lilsia]

I can't imagine going to WDW and not spending a couple of days at Epcot. I would go there over a second HS day.

 

[gharter]

Just curious your thinking on not putting too much value into touringplans?

I still use Touringplans to get a rough idea how busy the parks might be. This year and next year, with everything going on, capacity caps, I think their numbers are no better than anyone elses guesses. Before cancelling our October trip, their crowd planner had days drop from 6 to 1 for every park, then jump up to 4's and then back to 1-2.
When the parks were crowded, I liked their line app for waiting times.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Hello all!
We will be there January 2nd through the 7th . My current plan is to have two Hollywood studio days, one animal kingdom day, and one full magic kingdom day. Magic Express picks us up at 5:00 on the 7th, we are planning to go to magic kingdom for a bit before that for a partial day.

My question is, on the 2nd we arrive at the airport at 10:45. Using magic Express I expect to be at the poly by 2:00. Is it worth going to Epcot for just a few hours? It will be me, husband, and three children (4, 7, 10). Epcot is open until 8:00, but it is supposed to be the busiest Park that day according to touring plans.

If there is Park availability, and we get everything we want done at Hollywood studios in one day, I would not be opposed to changing the second Hollywood studio day.

I’m all for Epcot for a half day for just a few hours. Some might argue that with the level of construction it’s not worth a ticket use but I disagree. I would make your park pass reservations sooner than later should they fill up as you may not be able to change park passes the day prior from DHS to Epcot. And as other posters have mentioned, in normal times Touring Plans crowd calendars aren’t always correct, and now in the covid world, nobody knows what crowd levels will be like. Especially now given crowd behavior due to limited offerings within the parks.

And if you want more time at Epcot, you can always bypass ME and uber/Lyft to the poly instead. Have fun.

 

[MrsPete]

Three rather disconnected thoughts:

- I'd give up a day of Hollywood Studios for a full day at EPCOT.
- I'm not clear on whether you mean you'd be buying a full-day ticket and only using it for half a day. With prices being so high, I'd have a problem with that personally. When I buy a ticket, I'm gonna squeeze out every minute.
- Like so many other things, "Worth it" depends upon your expectations.