Festival Fridays: Ultimate KID’S GUIDE to the Flower & Garden Festival!
Welcome back to the Festival Fridays article series! Each Friday during the Flower and Garden Festival I’ll be publishing a brand new ‘Festival Friday’s’ article featuring the best topiaries, tastes, and tips to help you get the most of the 2021 Flower and Garden Festival!
It wasn’t all that long ago that “Epcot” and “kids” did not belong in the same sentence. As Epcot continues to undergo its wide array of changes, family fun is certainly at the center of the Park’s new concept…and kids are the focus! This year’s Flower and Garden Festival offers more to younger guests than in any previous year! From kid-friendly foods to special areas designated just for youngsters, grab your kids and cozy up for the ultimate kid’s guide to the Flower and Garden Festival.
Food
No Festival guide would be complete without a little insight into the fantastic food offerings! Many of the menu items at the Flower and Garden Festival this year are unique, unusual, and downright NOT the most appealing to most kids! Don’t worry thought, the Italy booth has even the most sensitive of palettes covered with their Margherita Flatbread! Although the pungent cheese and delicious sauce would appeal to even the most curated of adult palettes, you’d be hard-pressed to find a kid who wouldn’t love this simple yet perfectly executed flatbread pizza!
As a kid, I used to opt for ham and cheese sandwiches almost every day for my school lunches, and many of my friends did the same. Ham and cheese is a kid-friendly staple that’s easy to put together and always satisfies. If your child loves that age old combo, head to the Bauernmarkt (Germany Festival booth). They’re serving up a unique take on the classic ham and cheese by substituting bread for a warm, dense pretzel roll! The combo of salty ham and melted cheese oozing over the sides of the pretzel roll is guaranteed to please any ham and cheese fan out there!
Health Full Trail
As I was leaving the Flower and Garden Festival on opening day, I chose to take the Imagination Walkway route. As I meandered along the winding walkway, I immediately wished I was a kid again.
Situated along the walkway is a beautiful open-air play space designed for kids to safely space out and play while the adults lounge in the comfy, shaded lawn chairs around the play zone…and it looked like FUN! The Health Full play zone not only offers a safe space for kids to run and play, but even features a maze made out of real, living vegetation!
Pollen-Nation Exploration
As the adults sip and taste their way through the flavors of the world, get the kids in on the fun of exploring the different countries and their cultures too! Spike the Bee’s Pollen-Nation Exploration is the perfect way to engage your children and keep them motivated to make the full trip around World Showcase with a fun scavenger hunt!
“Follow Spike the Bee on his pollination trail, where he will “bee” busy collecting nectar and pollinating gardens at Epcot. To get started, purchase your map and stickers at select merchandise locations (available while supplies last). Once you have completed your scavenger hunt, return your completed map to Disney Traders or World Traveler for a special surprise!” -Disney. Sounds like something I would have loved as a kid!
Topiaries
Of course no trip to the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival is complete without a topiary tour! Each topiary is made of living plants and flowers- and most are sculpted in the likeness of classic Disney animated characters!
As you walk around World Showcase and Future World, you’ll not only see topiary characters featuring Mickey Mouse and his friends, but also sculpted topiaries from movies like Toy Story, The Lion King, Peter Pan, Show White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast, and more! Check out a video montage of the topiaries here- you just might spot your child’s favorite character!
Thanks for joining me on the journey of the very first ‘Festival Fridays’ article! Check back every Friday for more Festival Fun! For even more Parks and Resorts content, visit me on YouTube at DisneyWorldLocal for the latest ride POV’s, restaurant reviews, and updates from WDW from a Disney World Local!
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