May sound silly - but Epcot is my "planning problem" (help)

[JenniKleims]

We are heading to WDW November 26 and we have easily figured out every park (rides, attractions, etc...) except for Epcot.
We have one park day scheduled for Epcot (thinking now we should have planned two days,) and we have no wiggle room to park hop or even add an extra day to allocate to this park.

Long story short - Trying to fit everything we want to see into one day is proving to be quite overwhelming

I need some opinions, and or recommendations (pretty please)

-how much time should one normally "reserve" for the pavilions?
(understandable it depends on the group going...I'm just stumped.)

-What holiday "events" at the pavilions are worth hitting?
(Love the holidays! I would LOVE to hit them all - but alas I cannot or we will forgo eating lunch and dinner; which would be recipe for disaster)

-How bad is Mission Space Green for motion and if we remove this from our plan, will we regret it?
(I suffer from crazy motion sickness as does my son)

And a huge THANK YOU in advance.
(and I'm temporarily stepping away from all things Epcot...now)

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

If you have really bad motion sickness (as do I), I would not recommend mission space at all.

I think Epcot can certainly be done in a day. We typically spend about 1/4 of our time in the showcase, however, we have young kids so we may spend more if we didn't.

 

[tsme]

I would suggest Future world at rope drop, have lunch, then stroll around WS throughout the evening (snacking your way). I don't know when the Christmas story tellers start, but if they are there when you go, you should try to see them in each country. There is usually a schedule you can see to try & time it. Our favorites were in Norway, Italy, Germany, France, UK.

 

[Monorail_Man_NJ]

1 day at EPCOT is fine. In fact on November 28th EPCOT stays open until 11:30PM EMH. Most of the countries are shops/restaurants with no real attractions other than Mexico (the boat ride), Norway (Frozen) and China has a cool 360 degree movie. There are some performers etc from the other countries and a couple presentations/movies etc.

Mission Space does have a more tame version as well as the more intense version.
Test Track does also jerk you around a lot.

 

[epcotty]

I also say 1 day is fine. You can definitely get everything you want done.

For the pavilions, it depends on if there's an attraction or not (if not, it shouldn't take that long to just walk around each one). If there is a movie, then it depends on how long it is before showtime. Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico usually has a short line. For Frozen, you'll want to either get a FP, get there in the first 2 hours, or in the last hour.

We don't do holiday events at the pavilions when we're there then, so don't know. We did do Candlelight Processional once, it was ok, you can do that if you want to.

Mission Space Green: Unknown, just went through a refurb (previous one was kind of bad with motion in our opinion and too enclosed)

 

[Hopefully]

1 day at EPCOT is fine. In fact on November 28th EPCOT stays open until 11:30PM EMH. Most of the countries are shops/restaurants with no real attractions other than Mexico (the boat ride), Norway (Frozen) and China has a cool 360 degree movie. There are some performers etc from the other countries and a couple presentations/movies etc.

Mission Space does have a more tame version as well as the more intense version.
Test Track does also jerk you around a lot.

There are also nice movies in France and Canada.
We love Epcot. We easily spend 2 days and 3 evenings there on an 7 night trip.

 

[MattsPrincess]

Highly recommend the holiday storytellers. Each story only lasts about 10 minutes, and not every pavilion has one, so it's easy to see most if not all of them. We thought the one in Norway was the best.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

How much time to you plan to spend at EP that day? Are you planning on riding all the Tier 1 rides (Soarin', TT and FEA)? This would just help me figure out how much time you may want to devote to FW and how much time in WS.

Whatever your plans may be, I would plan on RD and getting as much done as you can in FW. If you plan on riding at least 2 of the Tier 1 rides, I would FP+ FEA (if that's one of the two) and make that FP+ for the afternoon (do you know where and/or when you want to eat lunch that day? That would help in the timing of FP+).

IMHO, Mission Space Green isn't worth riding if you are afraid of motion sickness. I haven't done the updated version yet (we'll do it in August), but, certainly, the old version was worth skipping IMHO.

In terms of the storytellers, this is a pretty good review of the storytellers throughout WS. http://www.disneytouristblog.com/epcot-holidays-around-world-tips/ I found last year it was impossible to do the storytellers in order. Just the way the performances were scheduled, we were only able to see about three without having to criss-cross to pavilions. You may want to pick three "must-do" storytellers and, if you see more, bonus. If I recall, the stories were about 15 minutes long. Do you want to see the Candlelight Processional? If so, I would recommend booking a dining package.

We found the holiday food booths to have really good food last year if you are walking around and want a quick meal or snack. We especially liked the Feast of the Three Kings booth.

I would also recommend going into the America pavilion to see the gingerbread houses and hear Voices of Liberty sing holiday music - they are amazing!

Honestly, if you plan to be in EP from RD to close, you will be able to see and do a lot.

 

[JenniKleims]

How much time to you plan to spend at EP that day? Are you planning on riding all the Tier 1 rides (Soarin', TT and FEA)? This would just help me figure out how much time you may want to devote to FW and how much time in WS.

We are hoping to get to Epcot around 9-9:30
I'd love to ride all three tier 1 but if we had to pick just one it would be FEA
(And try to get the other two in some how...or at least TT)

Whatever your plans may be, I would plan on RD and getting as much done as you can in FW. If you plan on riding at least 2 of the Tier 1 rides, I would FP+ FEA (if that's one of the two) and make that FP+ for the afternoon (do you know where and/or when you want to eat lunch that day? That would help in the timing of FP+)..

I have to get lunch in the plan but right now we have no clue.
We have an ADR at Akershus (6:30pm)
Thanks for the FEA tip. Will keep that in mind when we book them.

IMHO, Mission Space Green isn't worth riding if you are afraid of motion sickness. I haven't done the updated version yet (we'll do it in August), but, certainly, the old version was worth skipping IMHO.

In terms of the storytellers, this is a pretty good review of the storytellers throughout WS. http://www.disneytouristblog.com/epcot-holidays-around-world-tips/ I found last year it was impossible to do the storytellers in order. Just the way the performances were scheduled, we were only able to see about three without having to criss-cross to pavilions. You may want to pick three "must-do" storytellers and, if you see more, bonus. If I recall, the stories were about 15 minutes long. Do you want to see the Candlelight Processional? If so, I would recommend booking a dining package.

Thanks for the opinion on mission space.
No for the candle light processional but it sounds amazing.
Thank you for the link!! I will check it out!

We found the holiday food booths to have really good food last year if you are walking around and want a quick meal or snack. We especially liked the Feast of the Three Kings booth.

I would also recommend going into the America pavilion to see the gingerbread houses and hear Voices of Liberty sing holiday music - they are amazing!

Honestly, if you plan to be in EP from RD to close, you will be able to see and do a lot.

Didn't realize there are holiday food booths! This will help get lunch out of the way...i hope LOL
OH! Perfect will make sure to add the American pavilion to the must see list.
Thanks for all the tips! I'm going to pass them along to my co-planner (aka sister) and hopefully this will help make Epcot a bit less stressful.