My EPCOT Itinerary for 1 Amazing Day

I love EPCOT. Its my favourite park in Walt Disney World. On my recent trip to Orlando, I spent more than one day at this park. I do think its very possible to see what EPCOT has to offer in a single day though, especially at the moment as the park is going through a stage of redevelopment. In this 1 day EPCOT itinerary, I’m going to provide you with an overview of how I spent my first day at this amazing park during my Walt Disney World trip. I followed this EPCOT itinerary and did pretty much everything there is to do in the park, so I think its a good plan for someone with limited park time.

• You can read more about the various attractions and pavilions that make up EPCOT in my comprehensive park guide HERE.

A Few Notes for my EPCOT Itinerary

I bought Genie+ as part of my vacation package on my latest trip to Walt Disney World. While its definitely useful at other parks, I don’t think its really essential at EPCOT. I only made a few Lightning Lane reservations, and honestly, if I hadn’t used them, I think I still would have been able to get through everything on this EPCOT itinerary. There’s just not that many attractions where you’ll be waiting for a long time at EPCOT (provided you plan out the first part of your day well).

• You can read more about Genie+ and other Walt Disney World basics in my post HERE.

I visited EPCOT on a weekday in July – otherwise known as peak Disney tourist season. The Food & Wine Festival hadn’t started yet (it kicked off on a later day in my vacation), so that might have had something to do with the park not being as packed on the day I followed this touring plan.

As a resort guest, I was able to take advantage of early park admission. That meant an 8.00am rope drop on the day I visited (with the park opening to other guests at 8.30am). Since I was staying at Disney’s Pop Century resort, I got to the park aboard the Skyliner, and entered at the International Gateway entrance to the park. I was there by 7.15am and ready to go. Guests were let into the park from around 7.30am.

At 7.00am, (from on board the Disney Skyliner), I made a reservation for the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind virtual queue. My boarding group was called around 12.45pm, so I planned my EPCOT itinerary around that. My first Lightning Lane reservation was for Soarin’ at 8.30am.

Rope Dropping at Remy’s

Entering the park at the International Gateway (my first time having done so), I started my EPCOT itinerary by following the crowds to the right. Reaching the queue that quickly gathered at the France pavilion, I got ready to ride Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. I really enjoyed this new attraction. It was unlike any Disney ride I had experienced at that point, as it does an excellent job utilising the new trackless ride technology. If I wasn’t entering the park at International Gateway, my EPCOT itinerary probably would have been more dependent on Genie+, as I would have started on the other side of the park, but owing to my circumstances, I was able to get this popular ride out of the way early on. I was actually on Remy’s by 7.50am, before early entry had even officially begun! – getting to the parks early always pays off!

Space, Flight and Technology

Getting off Remy’s, I made the long walk to the front section of the park to continue my EPCOT itinerary. I had planned to ride Test Track next, however the ride was facing a delayed opening that morning (not an uncommon occurrence). That meant I continued onwards to Mission: Space (naturally the orange version), and it was basically a walk on. I then headed over to the Land Pavilion to ride Soarin’ Around the World. I used my Lightning Lane reservation, though it was hardly necessary at that hour – I did beat the few rope droppers who had headed here right on official park opening though.

With the park officially open for about a half an hour by the time I got off Soarin’, I next headed to Spaceship Earth, keen to take a ride on this classic EPCOT attraction in light of its rumoured makeover in the near future. Its a fairly lengthy attraction, eating up about 20 minutes of time, but by the time I got off, Test Track had opened, so using the single rider line I did that. I had planned to skip Journey Into Imagination with Figment (I’m not a huge fan of this family friendly ride), but passing it on the way back to the Land Pavilion afterwards, I saw it was also a walk-on, so did it as well. Not bad touring progress as it wasn’t even 10am yet!

Land and Seas

With only a few more attractions to experience in the former Future World, I set off to do the rest of them (excluding Guardians). I returned to the Land Pavilion and took the most popular greenhouse tour in the world aboard Living with the Land. I skipped Awesome Planet, and instead made my way to the Seas with Nemo and Friends next door. Starting with the attraction itself (again, basically a walk on), I followed it up with some time watching the manatees, dolphins and more in the SeaBase aquarium – its an excellent aquarium by theme park standards! By the time I was done here, it was around 11am, meaning World Showcase was properly opening. Around the same time, I made a Lightning Lane reservation for Frozen Ever After for around 2.00pm.

World Showcase: Part 1

With 11am nearing, I made my way back towards the World Showcase. People have differing views as to which way to circle the lagoon, but I tend to always go the clockwise, which means starting in Mexico. After picking up a margarita (I’ll write more about snacking and drinking around the world in the future – its the best part of any EPCOT itinerary!), I spent some time checking out the exhibits and stores, while also riding the Gran Fiesta Tour starring the Three Caballeros, which never has much of a line.

Finishing up Mexico with the mariachi band performance, I then wandered into Norway. I proceeded to do everything except the Frozen attractions here, which meant checking out the Norse mythology exhibits and having a snack and Viking coffee at the Kringla Bakeri og Kafe. With time to do one more pavilion before having to return to the front of the park to ride Guardians, I picked up an alcoholic tea cocktail in China, ventured through the pavilion’s massive retail space, and had a look at the Shanghai Disneyland exhibit.

More Big Ticket Attractions

Three countries into my tour of the World Showcase, my boarding group was called for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. That meant a long walk back to the main entrance of the park to ride the newest attraction on this EPCOT itinerary. Despite operating the virtual queue, I still spent a decent amount of time in line for the attraction (I’d say probably around 40 minutes all up, including the pre-ride scenes), but it was all worthwhile. This indoor rollercoaster is incredible. It really sends you in all directions and if it wasn’t so popular, I definitely would have tried to ride it again. This is the one attraction you have to make sure you do when you visit EPCOT.

Getting off Guardians, it was time to head back to Norway, as I had another ride reservation to use. With my Lightning Lane window open, I boarded a boat for Arendelle aboard Frozen Ever After. This is the one part of my day where Genie+ paid off, as the regular standby line was about an hour at this point. If I had to get in the regular line, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but by passing the normal queue here, I had more time to enjoy the rest of the World Showcase for the remainder of my day at EPCOT.

The Rest of the World Showcase

I resumed my tour of the World Showcase at the Germany Pavilion. It was only 2.30pm, and from here on out, the rest of my EPCOT itinerary made for a very relaxed day. I made my way around the remainder of the country pavilions – Italy, the US, Japan, Morocco, France, the UK and Canada. Along the way I snacked, drank, enjoyed the cultural exhibits and stores, and watched a few musical performances. I enjoyed it so much that I returned on my spare day at Walt Disney World after doing the other parks.

I’m not going to provide a detailed list of everything I did at these pavilions, but I feel like I spent roughly half an hour at each country. As a lover of travelling the world, this was the best part of my day at EPCOT, and by having a busy morning, I was able to take my time and enjoy it. While some might say I could have used my time better by doing other attractions again in the front of the park, to me, the World Showcase is what EPCOT is truly about.

After spending the rest of the day in the World Showcase, I capped off an excellent day at EPCOT with the nighttime fireworks show. Unlike other Disney nighttime shows, you don’t need to arrive early for a good vantage point – there’s so much room around the lagoon you can see it from all angles. Its the perfect way to end your 1 day EPCOT itinerary. I really enjoyed my day touring the park as set out in this post. I’m sure there are other touring plans that readers might prefer (particularly those focusing on the front of the park in greater detail), and I’d love to hear about them. Hopefully if you’re headed to EPCOT though, this post has been of use to you in working out how to tour this excellent Disney park.