Hello, lovelies! I went to Disney World back in October with two of my best friends, Kat and Stellah, for Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival and the park’s 50th Anniversary celebration. I wrote all three days into one blog post, and it was almost 8,000 words long. Instead of publishing it all together, I decided to divide it into three parts so that I have time to add pictures and edit each section.

Today, I’ll be talking about the first day of our trip, which was at Epcot. This was an incredibly exciting day because we had talked about doing the International Food & Wine Festival since high school. Kat, who is 80% the reason I’m a Disney Adult, goes to that festival there every year with her family. She told us about it in high school and we always talked about doing it together at some point. Five years after graduating, we finally did it!

Posts From My Last Trip In 2017

Day 1 // EPCOT

//3 AM Wake Up Call

My day started very early on Friday, but I felt surprisingly awake and got out of my bed with my alarm. I packed and cleaned my room the night before so that I would come home to a clean room at the end of the trip. I got ready, ate an omelet for breakfast, said goodbye to my mom, and got into my friend Stellah’s car. Her dad was dropping us off. We were pretty early for our 6:30 AM flight, so we didn’t have to stress. We got through TSA and walked the long way to our terminal at the airport. The Atlanta airport has a giant art gallery that I usually skip in favor of taking the internal train, but we had time. After that, we found a place to sit and wait.

//Flight + Magical Express + Coronado Springs

The flight to Florida was good. Stellah slept during the flight, but I can’t sleep on planes, so I listened to music and started the first episode of season 3 of You. (It had just come out). We only packed backpacks since we were flying Spirit, so we were able to get off the plane and head straight for the Magical Express, which is the free Disney transportation from the airport to the hotel. The ride was about 30 minutes. We arrived at Coronado Springs Resort at around 8:45. Kat had already checked in and was waiting for us at the bus stop, so we gave her a giant hug then drove to our hotel room. The resort is huge, so it wasn’t a walkable distance. We arrived at our room, packed a day bag, put on sunscreen, and headed for the shuttle to EPCOT. The park opens at 10, so we had the whole day to see everything. We had to go to guest relations to extend my two-day tickets to a three-day ticket (I was originally planning on spending Sunday with my family in Orlando, but they went to New York), and then we entered the parks.

//Took Picture In Front of Ball + Ratatouille Ride

The first thing we did was take a picture in front of the EPCOT ball. Then we ran over to the World Showcase. The Food & Wine Festival was going on, so there were many booths representing different countries. We checked them out, but didn’t stop for anything because we were lucky enough to get into the virtual cue for Remi’s Ratatouille Adventure, which is the newest ride at Walt Disney World. We didn’t think we’d get to ride it, but Kat woke up early and got us a spot. We lucked out on it being our first ride of the trip.

The theming for this ride is AMAZING. They expanded the France pavilion at EPCOT, and the entire extension makes it feel like you’re in the movie. Not just the ride. They play the music score throughout the area, there’s a Gusteau’s sign above the ride, and there are little rat motifs everywhere. It was very cool. We got through the line for the virtual cue in 20-minutes. The cue itself was very beautiful. There was a section inside where you’re in Paris in the dark. The ride itself is trackless, which is something I had never experienced before. It’s kind of like riding a bumper car sliding on a magnetic floor. We wore 3D glasses and rode through a fictional aftermath of the movie.

Ate at the Food & Wine Festival

After the ride, we were HUNGRY, and the only thing I wanted to eat was the beer-braised beef with gouda mashed potatoes in the Belgium booth. I had read through the menu of the food and wine festival at the Atlanta Airport that morning, and I had been craving it ever since. That was the only thing I wanted to eat for breakfast, and it was SO GOOD. Totally worth the wait. We also had something called Pão de queijo, which is a Brazilian cheese bread. That was also delicious and I kind of wish we had bought more. I probably won’t mention all the food or drinks we had in this post because I can’t remember. The three of us would take turns buying food and drinks and share amongst ourselves. The setup was honestly perfect. We were all under our food budget by the end of the day, both because we were sharing and because it was cheaper than I thought it would be. I budgeted $80 for the Food & Wine festival and didn’t spend close to that by the end of the day.

Also, I recommend getting the little gift cards attached to wrist bands at the front of the park. There’s no fee and you can put as much money as you want on it and use it in all of the parks. Whenever we’d go to a booth, we’d just scan the card instead of taking out our wallets every time we bought something. I ended up using that wrist band the rest of the weekend at other parks.

Rode all the rides at the front of the park

After eating a few things, we walked to the front of the park to ride the rides there. We got excited when we saw Winnie-the-Pooh running around with his butterfly net and had to take a picture.

The first thing we rode was Figment because it had a really short line. Then we rode Living with the Land, which I hadn’t ridden before. It’s a boat ride through Epcot’s green houses. I didn’t know this until a few years ago. but Disney World grows it’s own food and is self-sufficient. It was cool to learn about all of that. Then we rode my favorite ride at EPCOT, Soarin’ Around The World. The ride is in a giant projection dome, and the seats we sit in go up and “fly” over world landmarks. I love it. You can feel the wind on your face and everything.

After that, we rode the The Seas With Nemo and Friends and walked around the aquarium. Once we had had our fill, we headed over to Spaceship Earth, which is the ride inside the EPCOT ball. The concept for this ride is that you’re traveling through time. They fit a considerable amount of animatronics and tech into that giant ball.

We were getting hungry at that point and weighed the pros and cons of going back to the World Showcase or finish all the rides at the front of the park. We decided on the latter since the last two rides were thrill rides. Instead of eating then waiting again before heading back to the front part of the park, we could finish those rides then spend the rest of the day going around the World Showcase. I was sure glad we hadn’t eaten anything before Mission Space because we all did the orange level, which is the non-family friendly version of the ride, and it was certainly a thrill. Stellah said that it was her favorite ride we’d done that day. After that, we rode on Test Track. we didn’t bother getting in the regular line. We all just got on the single-rider line and got in separate cars because we didn’t care about getting a group picture.

Ate More Food & Headed To The World Showcase

We were all very hungry by then and excited about the prospect of riding every ride at EPCOT by the end of the day. The closest booth that I was interested in was the Macaroni & Cheese booth, so that’s what I bought first. I can’t remember what other foods we bought and shared, but once our hunger was sated, we headed to the Mexico Pavilion. There are two sides you can start with, Mexico and Canada, but we decided to start with Mexico so that we could get through the last two rides on our list early on.

Mexico Pavilion

We all went to an outdoor restaurant in the Mexico pavilion and ordered six cups of ice water because it was SO HOT and chilled at a table for twenty minutes to rest our feet and finish our water. We talked and made plans for the rest of the weekend. We went into the pyramid, excited for some air conditioning and walked around. Because of Covid, there was a path we had to walk through. Before, we could just wander around the little shops and booths. The three of us looked through all the art and knick-knacks everywhere and marveled at the architecture. Disney puts a lot of work into the little details, and it showed there (particularly the fake volcano inside next to the restaurant for the Three Caballeros ride). After looking through things, we got in line for said ride and talked. The line was short and the ride was fun. We took some pictures inside and outside before heading to the next Pavilion, which is Norway.

Frozen Ride

The big pull for the Norway section is that the Frozen Ever After ride is there. I had never been on this ride before. It had just been built when I last came to Disney in 2017, but the line wasn’t worth it back then since we were only spending half the day in Epcot. This was by far the longest line that day. Prior to this, all the lines had been less than 25-minutes, but this line was about 45. We didn’t mind though because we had already ridden every other ride in the park and this was last on our list.

It was so hot. The line had gone outside, so we didn’t have to wear our masks in that part of the line, but we were so excited to get inside the queue for air conditioning. We talked and I kept singing Out There from Hunchback of Notre Dame because it was stuck in my head (this information will be relevant later). The inside part of the line was themed beautifully. We read through all the fake newspaper clippings of what happened after the movie and walked to Oaken’s outpost. The ride was also really good. I think it’s one the best of the “experiencing the movie” rides at Disney.

Ate Again & Took A Break At The China Pavilion

We felt very satisfied getting through all the rides in the park. Our only plan for the rest of the day was to eat and explore. It was still very sunny at this point, so after eating some more food from the festival, we went inside the China Pavilion. There was air conditioning and outlets, so we were very happy to rest. We were all leaning against a wall on our phones cooling down, and I turned on the timer of my camera to take a picture of that moment. (pictured below)

Stellah joked that it would be sad if that was our only picture from the day. We had taken pictures in the beginning, but were having too much fun to take posed pictures in front of rides, and we kept eating our food before thinking to take pictures of it. We decided to take more pictures from then on.

Walked Around The World Showcase

After that much needed break, we walked through the entire World Showcase, eating food, taking pictures, and enjoying the scenery. I was sad that they weren’t doing the outdoor Chinese acrobat show anymore, but Disney was limiting their scheduled live shows to prevent a lot of people gathering.

We ate so much food and it was all delicious. The sun had started setting, so the weather was very mild. We had gotten through the Germany, Italy, United States, Japan, and Morocco Pavilions before dark, and there were dozens of country food stalls in between. When we got to the France Pavilion (the original area, not the Ratatouille expansion), Kat asked us if we wanted to do the Beauty & the Beast sing-along. That attraction did not exist last time I was there, so we were both down. It was a ten minute show inside of a movie theatre, not a live comedy show like the Frozen sing-a-long at Hollywood Studios, but it was still very fun singing along in a theatre full of people. They changed the story up a little bit and made Lefou the protagonist.

After that very funny show, we walked around the bakeries and shops in the France Pavilion and decided on what we wanted to eat and do before finding a seat for the night-time show. We finished the last leg of the World Showcase, UK and Canada, and stumbled upon a concert in the Canada area. The three of us danced to the concert in the middle of the street with a few other people before heading to the Belgium booth for waffles. I genuinely considered getting the beef and gouda mashed potatoes again, but decided to try something new. Plus, I was craving sea food.

Pixar Short Film Festival

We still had about an hour and a half before the fireworks. We were planning on just camping out somewhere since we had done everything we wanted to do and the 3 AM wake-up call was getting to us. We decided to head to the Pixar Film Festival. Most of the people at the park were at the World Showcase at this point, so the front area of the park was pretty much empty. We grabbed water from a kiosk (water is free at the park) and sat on a bench inside waiting for the showing. The three shorts they showed were Feast, Piper, and Get A Horse. Those were the same shorts we watched four years ago last time I was there. I had assumed EPCOT switched out the shorts once a month, but I guess they stay the same. It was still nice though. The shorts are good and it was nice sitting down for awhile.

Waited For Fireworks

The original plan was for us to go grab food and drinks then find a place to sit, eat, and wait for the show, but we decided to split up. Kat took us to an area with a great view of the show. I handed her my bracelet because I was the one with the most money left, and she went to get us food. Stellah laid down in my lap because she was more tired than I was. I had managed to be asleep by ten, but she couldn’t sleep until after midnight and was running on 3 hours of sleep. I continued watching the first episode of You season 3 while sitting there. When Kat came back, we switched off and I went to get the three of us drinks. The line was relatively long because it was near where people were waiting for fireworks. I talked to my mom on the phone and continued watching the show on my phone.

After grabbing my drinks, I saw that everyone was standing up in the area we were sitting. Stellah and Kat told me the cast members told everyone to stand up since it was about 15-minutes before the fireworks show. They said they’d hide me between them so I could sit and eat my food. I had gotten the lobster chowder and it was one of the best foods I ate there, even after it had cooled down. It was so good. I still think about it sometimes.

Harmonious Fireworks Show

This was the new nighttime show at EPCOT for the 50th Anniversary, and it was AMAZING. I loved it so much! It was both a fireworks and a water light projection show. They would play a Disney song in English, then in the native language: Go The Distance from Hercules in Greek, The Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book in Hindi, Reflection from Mulan in Mandarin, etc. It was phenomenal! When it started playing Out There in French, I looked at them both like “what are the odds?!” Kat had seen the show before and told me she thought about telling me but let it be a surprise.

After that amazing show, we headed out of the park to catch the bus to our hotel. EPCOT closes at 9:00, so we were showered and in bed by 10:30.

And that was day 1 of our trip! We had managed to ride every ride at Epcot in one day! That was definitely the biggest perk of the parks not being at capacity. The crowds were lower and the lines were shorter. I’ll be posting the Magic Kingdom Recap later this week, so stay tuned!

Disney Trip Recap 2021 | Epcot Food & Wine Festival