Epcot Transportation Challenge
I’ve been traveling to Walt Disney World since before I had the ability to store memories. The annual- sometimes semi annual- pilgrimage truly made WDW a second home for me. Growing up tends to change your point of view in certain facets of life. I find the same goes for the Disney Parks.
As a child, the day we would spend at Epcot was not the day I would look forward to the most. The adults in my party loved to explore World Showcase, spending hour after seemingly endless hour walking to the next Pavilion where I knew all too well there would not be a single attraction waiting for me. Yes, for children, Epcot can be a tough sell.
Challenge Your Children
Now I’m all grown up and can not only spend hours but days happily touring World Showcase and discovering each nuance it offers. Recently, I visited Epcot with some young family members not so keen on spending their day at the Rose and Crown Pub, so I came up with a fun challenge for us to embark upon!
While Epcot may be most known for the World Showcase, Future World makes up half of the parks’ acreage and holds the keys to your children’s’ happiness: attractions. The young members of my party couldn’t wait to discover each of the attractions at Epcot, so I put my mind to work and came up with a fun challenge to present them with at the entrance gates in the hopes they would leave Epcot feeling excited and accomplished.
The Challenge
The challenge: How many different modes of transportation can you take while visiting Epcot?
Future world is where you’ll have to spend the bulk of your time to complete the challenge, so plan your day accordingly.
To complete the challenge, the only things you need to bring with you to Epcot are some crayons or colored pencils and a few blank sheets of paper. Here is how the challenge works:
- After you ride each attraction, have your child make a note of the ride vehicle featured on that given attraction (Example: Test Track = car)
- Keep a tally each time you ride in a new vehicle
- For each repeated vehicle, ask your child to pick out three ways it differs from the last (Example: both Living with the Land and Grand Fiesta Tour are boat rides, so take note of color differences, design differences, etc)
- Sketch Time!
Here is a detailed explanation of how the challenge went down when I completed it with my cousins a few weeks ago…
Soarin’
Mode of Transportation: Hang glider (I’d also accept airplane, helicopter, hot air balloon…)
After you exit the ride, have your child make a note of what vehicle they were in for later
Test Track
Mode of Transportation: Car
Living With the Land
Mode of Transportation: Boat
Mission: Space
Mode of Transportation: Rocket
Spaceship Earth
Mode of Transportation: Time Machine
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
Mode of Transportation: Clamshell
Gran Fiesta Tour
Mode of Transportation: Boat
Frozen Ever After
Mode of Transportation: Boat
Transportation to Future World/World Showcase
Mode of Transportation: Boat
Transportation to Magic Kingdom
Mode of Transportation: Monorail
Transportation to other parks/resort hotels
Mode of Transportation: Bus
Transportation to parking areas
Mode of Transportation: Tram
This is the list of attractions I used for my challenge, but you can add or subtract to fit your party’s needs. So now that you’ve visited each of these attractions, the adults in the party are probably more than ready to head out into World Showcase for some exploring and some food and beverage sampling. When the attention and patience of your children start to fade about halfway around the world, the challenge picks back up!
Tour the World at Leisure
Give them the crayons and paper and ask them to draw from memory their three favorite modes of transportation they took. It’s very important to point out things like color, size, and design while riding the attractions so the drawings will be as detailed as possible.
This challenge was a great way to keep my cousins’ energy and excitement up while the adults were enjoying World Showcase and afternoon tiredness set in. I will definitely keep this challenge on the back burner for the next time I visit Epcot with young children, as it has proven its success! Will you play this game with your children the next time you visit Epcot? Let me know in the comments!
Special thanks to Maria Salerno for writing this article: Hiya pal! I am a NYC-based writer/musician thrilled to be bringing you all things Disney! I’m a WDW Annual Passholder, so you can find me in the parks regularly throughout the year. In addition to being a Disney Parks loving girl, I’m also a Disney toy and merchandise collector, a runDisney enthusiast, and Disney music and movie aficionado. You can follow me on Instagram: NYCtoAP and find me on YouTube: NYCtoAP. Thanks for reading, hope to see ya real soon!