With a total of 12 Disney parks (Disneyland and other parks) all over the world, Walt Disney Resorts are an abundance of fun, amusement, and entertainment.EPCOT is actually an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. This was Disney’s second theme park at Walt Disney World Resort, which opened on October 1, 1982.After the success experienced with Disneyland in 1955, Walt Disney set forth his plan, claiming that this was the most exciting and challenging assignment for the Walt Disney company. The plan was to create a humongous vacation paradise known as Walt Disney World Resort.The permanent world’s fair, that is Epcot, was designed by Walt Disney himself. While Walt intended to get Epcot built as a real community for people to live, work, and play, things turned out quite differently after Disney’s death in 1966. This project was, however, completed as a homage to Walt’s vision, by using state-of-the-art technology and architecture that is visible all through the theme park. About 3,000 designers and 4,000 construction workers were involved in building the first phase of the Epcot theme park.Location Of EpcotEpcot is the place of some classic themes, attractions, entertainment, and festivals.Epcot is one of the four major theme parks at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. While it is most appealing to older Disney lovers, there’s plenty in store for kids too.Building this park needed more than 54 million cu. ft (one and a half million cu. m) of dirt excavation. Sprawled over 300 acres, Epcot is almost three times as large as Magic Kingdom. However, the largest theme park at Walt Disney World Resort is Disney’s Animal Kingdom.With the original construction cost of Epcot ranging between $0.8-1.4 billion, this park stands as the third most-visited theme park in North America, and the sixth most-visited theme park in the world.As per the statistics of 2015, the park has hosted more than 12 million guests. Epcot is visited by around 11.25 million visitors every year.Activities To Do At EpcotThere are a plethora of activities for kids and adults at this Disney Park that will make your day quite fun and entertaining.The two halves of Epcot, Future World, and the World Showcase, are actually two different theme parks next to each other.Future World, which is at the front of the park has Spaceship Earth near the entrance. This houses many rides and shows about technology, space travel, and people’s interaction with nature.This rides you through human methods of communication, dating back to ancient cave paintings, right up to the internet and beyond.Ahead of Spaceship Earth are several rides and technological attractions. Innovations comprise of two buildings with games and shows about novel inventions that ease people’s lives.The World Showcase is divided into sections to represent 11 countries, around the World Showcase Lagoon. You’re going to have to bring your walking boots along, as walking around the World Showcase Lagoon, from Mexico to Canada pavilion sums up to 1.25 mi (2 km).While the Mexico pavilion has a ride, the Norway pavilion doesn’t have a ride yet. The ‘Frozen Ever After’ ride is one of the most popular rides at the Norway pavilion, while characters from ‘Brother Bear’ and ‘Pocahontas’ are occasionally seen in the Canada pavilion.In the Japan pavilion, visitors can purchase an oyster shell. If you’re lucky, the shell may contain a pearl inside. Meanwhile, the Eiffel Tower replica in the France pavilion is 34.3 yd (31.36 m) tall.The China pavilion has movies about the country. The Temple of Heaven replica at the China pavilion features Christina Aguilera’s music video ‘Reflection’ from the 1998 Disney film ‘Mulan’.Towards the Morocco pavilion, is the Tower of Terror in the background, which fits well with the pavilion’s colors and designs.The Morocco pavilion mosaics were designed by Moroccan artists sent over by King Hassan II, who wanted the pavilion to look like the actual city does.If you like ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, you’ll definitely enjoy visiting the princess and her friends at the Germany pavilion.At the Germany pavilion, there is a wall at the back with a mural. This mural portrays the River Rhine Cruise, intended for a boat ride to function there. However, this boat ride hasn’t been put into place yet.The Biergarten restaurant in Germany pavilion serves up to 26.2 mi (42 km) of bratwurst, every 60 days.Features Of EpcotEpcot has a wide range of eye-catching features all over the theme park, right from the entrance of the park where the geodesic sphere stands.The Spaceship Earth, weighing a massive 15,520,000 lb (7,039,754 kg) and designed by Ray Bradbury (the famous writer of science fiction and ‘Fahrenheit 451’s’ author), is the eye-catching geodesic sphere at the entrance.The Disney Imagineers, together with Ray Bradbury, wrote the original storyline for the Spaceship Earth ride. With 11,324 silver facets, this giant golf ball structure is 55 yd (50.2 m) in diameter and occupies 2.2 million cu. ft (62,297 cu. m) of space.At the time of the opening of this park in 1982, the World Showcase had only nine countries. The addition of the Morocco pavilion in 1984 and the Norway pavilion in 1988 resulted in the 11 countries that can be seen at the World Showcase now.A popular ride attraction is ‘The Seas with Nemo and Friends’ which holds 5.7 million gal (21 million l) of water and houses over 3000 fish, along with a variety of sea creatures. This is supposedly the world’s second-biggest saltwater tank.Yet another interesting feature at this Disney Park is ‘The Seas with Nemo’ which takes guests on a ride through an aquarium featuring characters from the Disney movie ‘Finding Nemo’.The Innoventions area, although not part of the day that Epcot opened, does house several exhibits and attractions. This was opened on September 29, 1994.Yet another ride is ‘Living With the Land’, which is a boat ride that takes guests through a few greenhouses containing numerous fruits and vegetables. The food grown in these greenhouses is used in restaurants there, including the Garden Grill and Sunshine Seasons in the Land pavilion.The Land has a unique and massive tomato tree, the only one of its kind in the US, that has produced a world-record harvest of more than 32,000 tomatoes from a single vine.The Test Track’s circuit approximates to almost 1,429 yd (1,307 m). The cars in Test Track blast through the road at a top speed of 64.9 mi per hour (111.7 km per hour), which is deemed as the fastest Disney Theme Park attraction of all time.The pavilions in World Showcase are lit up for the nightly ‘Illuminations: Reflections of Earth’ show, with over 8,667 yd (7,925 km) of lights being used. The Earth Globe, which is the centerpiece here, has a diameter of 9 yd (8.5 m) and weighs 350,000 lb (158,757 kg).The Earth Globe has spectacular fireworks for Reflections of Earth and was considered as the first system of its kind with a spherical video display.When the Magic Kingdom first opened in 1971, a statue was sent over by Japan to commemorate the opening. This statue was then moved to the Japan pavilion once Epcot opened the World showcase.The Mission Space at Epcot was developed by more than 650 Walt Disney Imagineers, over a five-year period, and more than 350,000 hours (that’s about 40 years of time). Mission Space has about 13 quotes by space explorers and visionaries on its wall of honor.Best Time And Season To Visit EpcotFor an added benefit, the best time to visit Epcot would be when the Epcot festivals are held.Planning a visit to Epcot would obviously depend on your children’s school schedules, your budget, your tolerance to extreme weather, or your passion for events and festivals.The ideal time of the year to visit Epcot would be in the months of January and February, as there’s pleasant weather and not too many kids in the park.What you do have to consider, in case you’re taking your kids along, is that Epcot stands out from the other Disney Parks. Barring a few family-friendly rides, the visitors tend to be of older age groups.Summertime is usually not as crowded in Epcot, as in the Magic Kingdom. However, the place would be brimming with kids and adults around the holidays.Every spring, more than 30 million blooms fill up the park during the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. This is a sight you can feast your eyes on if you happen to visit around springtime.From bonsai to roses, an avid gardener would be amused at this festival. The gardens of Epcot, at Walt Disney World Resort, with themed landscapes, are maintained by more than 50 horticulture staff. During the festival, the crops are rotated twice to keep the 30 million colorful blossoms fresh.There’s the annual Epcot International Food and Wine Festival in the fall. Representing 25 nations, the Food and Wine Festival averages about 1.5 million food sample servings, and about 100,000 miniature desserts get devoured. If you’re a foodie, this would be the time to visit.Annually, in the fall, Epcot hosts the concert series ‘Eat to the Beat’. One of the Eat to the Beat concerts was organized during the Food and Wine Festival and had famous artists perform at the event.During the winter, there’s the Candlelight Professional, which brings several celebrities to this Disney park.Throughout the month of December, Epcot’s Candlelight Professional, which goes along with the International Festival of the Holidays, brings in quite a few celebrity narrators. Some of the famous participants in 2019 were Neil Patrick Harris and Whoopi Goldberg.Yet another festival at Epcot is the International Festival of the Arts. This festival celebrates the culinary, performing, and visual arts. An artsy person would be thrilled to participate in this festival.
With a total of 12 Disney parks (Disneyland and other parks) all over the world, Walt Disney Resorts are an abundance of fun, amusement, and entertainment.
