Of course, with so much to ride, eat, see, and do, you could spend at least one full day at Epcot, and some guests staying for a week opt to visit more than once, coming back another afternoon to take advantage of the restaurants and entertainment.
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This nice thing about Epcot is that the World Showcase really offers you the opportunity to make whatever you'd like out of your day. Eating, drinking, shopping, entertainment—add in the unique festival offerings throughout most days of the year, and it's not hard to fill a full day at the park.
The best part is that you can eat lunch in a small village in Mexico and by evening you can dine near the Eiffel Tower. You can easily spend a full day (8+ hours) in World Showcase, but you can likely hit the highlights in about four hours.
In general, you should think of Epcot as a two-day park. There's so much to see and do that you really need a couple of days to enjoy everything without feeling like you're rushing through the park. But we recognize that most people can't or won't give two of their precious days at Disney to Epcot.
Walking Distances at EPCOTJust the walk around World Showcase alone is 1.2 miles. If you walk completely around Future World and World Showcase, you'll be at 3 miles easily. If you visit EPCOT during a festival and plan on seeing and eating everything, then you may walk around the park several times.
Epcot has the most walking paths (measured by miles) and is the second-largest park by acreage. The park has two distinct sections: World Showcase and Future World. The layout of the larger section, World Showcase, is really simple.
As a general rule of thumb the best day of the week to visit EPCOT typically tends to be Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. We would recommend visiting on a Wednesday during the festivals mentioned above.
As you might expect, the weekend is the busiest day at Epcot. Saturday and Sunday tend to be the busiest days in all parts of Disney World, and Epcot is no different. The busiest time at Epcot is on a weekend day during a festival.
Epcot attracts Disney Resort hotel guests on Mondays. As such, we're left with Tuesday and Wednesday, the quietest days throughout the year, and during festivals such as the Epcot International Festival Of the Arts and Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.
EPCOT is arguably the least family-friendly park at Walt Disney World, so you may not need more than a few hours to do everything of interest if you have small children. With that said, a full day at EPCOT is highly recommended for first-timers.
Prepare to spend at least $100 (most likely, around $130 to $150) to drink around the world at Epcot—just for the beverages. (A park ticket can range from $109 to $189, depending on the time of year, and food can be anywhere from a couple bucks to $20+.) Drinks can cost anywhere from $8 to $39 a pop.
Hollywood Studios, like Animal Kingdom, is often considered a “half day Park,” meaning that Guests can-in theory-do everything in the Park in about half a day. In reality, you'll probably spend about half your day waiting in lines as Hollywood Studios is mostly big ticket attractions.
Basic Outline of an Epcot DayOur basic approach to Epcot is to start with rides, take a lap around the World Showcase, ride a few more rides, take a second lap around the World Showcase, finish the rides, and finish our day.
For starters, World Showcase is home to both of EPCOT's most popular attractions that offer standby lines. There's also the fact that most guests arrive through the front entrance and do EPCOT from front to back, meaning they do World Showcase in the afternoon.
What time should I get to Epcot? We recommend arriving at Epcot 30 minutes before you're allowed in the park. That's an hour before the scheduled open if you have Early Entry or 30 minutes before scheduled entry if you don't have Early Entry.
Go EarlyIf you want to avoid long lines there's no simpler way than to wake up early and get to the park before it opens. Whether you have access to early entry or not, being at the park entrance before it opens will save you lots of time. Usually, you can get in 2-3 rides during the first hour of park operation.
As a general matter, Animal Kingdom is the park that requires the least strategy and is the easiest place to beat the crowds in all of Walt Disney World. It doesn't require Genie+ or Individual Lightning Lanes, and is pretty easy to knock out everything–and then some–if you stay for a full day.
However, a NEW ride has taken the spot of highest average wait time — it's Test Track at 69 minutes. Next up is Soarin' at 34 minutes, Mission: SPACE at 20 minutes, Turtle Talk with Crush at 15 minutes, and Spaceship Earth at 16 minutes.
It's usually every Monday at Epcot and every Wednesday at Magic Kingdom. That schedule does change from time to time, but is accurate the vast majority of the time. See Walt Disney World's official Events Calendar for specific times for each event night.
There are eleven true rides at Epcot.There are more “attractions” that don't involve moving vehicles, but there are eleven actual rides with moving vehicles.
Doing both Magic Kingdom and EPCOT in one day requires a Park Hopper add-on to your ticket. Park Hopper add-ons are $65 per 1-day ticket, $75 per 2 or 3-day ticket, and $85 per 4 to 10-day ticket.