I Rode Everything at EPCOT in One Day. Here’s How.
I recently did something I wasn’t sure was possible during the pandemic.
I rode everything at EPCOT during a single park visit. Twice. Here’s what I did and what I’d suggest based on my experience.
The Rope Drop Gamble
Disney’s capacity limits and Park Pass requirements wreak havoc with long-established park behaviors.
Historically, I would have entered the park and walked straight to Frozen Ever After, the pride of the Norway pavilion.
I adopted this approach whether I was entering through the front gate or the International Gateway.
In fact, I watched a video from an associate that proved there’s only a difference of 30 seconds either way.
Alas, the randomness of pandemic park visits has blown up those strategies, forcing us to take chances.
The basics remain the same, though. EPCOT includes three attractions with longer wait times than the rest.
Test Track requires the most time standing in line, followed by Soarin’ and then Frozen Ever After.
So, we took a chance and walked to Soarin’. We’ve gambled and lost on Test Track too many times.
However, that’s not what I would advise you to do. Instead, you should arrive as early as you can at EPCOT.
Then, as soon as you enter the park, you should walk straight to Test Track…and by straight, I mean the circuitous pathways currently available.
As long as you’re early, you should discover a wait-time of 20 minutes or less. If you’re not there before the park opens, it’ll approach 60 minutes.
Punt on Test Track unless everything has gone perfect on your way to the park.
Image Credit: Disney
Soarin’ rarely starts with more than a 15-minute wait in my experience.
Planning Your Next Rides
Once you’re done with Soarin’, check My Disney Experience to verify the wait-time at Test Track. If it’s 40 minutes or less, head straight there!
Otherwise, you should resist the temptation to ride Living with the Land or anything else in the area yet.
Yes, that includes The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Spaceship Earth, and Journey into Imagination with Figment.
What we did after Soarin’ was walk to the World Showcase and turn left. Our ultimate destination was Frozen Ever After, but we took some detours.
I love shopping at the World Showcase and stop at the Mexico pavilion frequently.
While there, we usually ride Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros. This strategy allows us to rest a bit midway through the walk to the Norway pavilion.
This ride is rarely crowded in the mornings and functions like an It’s a Small World clone. We love it.
After that’s over, we continue to the Norway pavilion, stopping to shop, snack, and just be a tourist whenever inclined.
Don’t sleep on the World Showcase’s superb amenities in your question to visit Arendelle!
When you arrive at the Norway pavilion, the wait-time should be 30 minutes or less. I wrote this at lunchtime on a Friday.
Frozen Ever After’s wait-time was 20 minutes at the time. Of course, the park had only been open for 90 minutes because EPCOT starts later.
Image Credit: Disney
Please keep these factors in mind as you strategize during your park visit.
We loooove Frozen Ever After and decided that we would ride it twice due to the short lines on our day.
An Afternoon at EPCOT
Afterward, we circled to my wife’s favorite two destinations, the Japan and United Kingdom pavilions.
We also grabbed some lunch during this timeframe and then noticed Soarin’s wait-time hadn’t changed any. So, we headed over there and rode it again.
Afterward, we knocked out our favorite trifecta of short lines. That’s the Nemo and Figment attractions plus Living with the Land.
I strongly suggest that you work these into your routine based on when you’re tired and looking for a short wait.
You may discover them at 15 minutes or less, depending on the time of day, and it works well. Sometimes, you need a win, and a walk-on attraction works!
Once we exited The Seas with Nemo & Friends, I finally got my win. Spaceship Earth is my favorite attraction at Walt Disney World.
The secret regarding this attraction is that the wait-time goes down in the afternoon.
People tend to ride it first thing in the morning as they enter EPCOT. That’s a rookie mistake, as the lines are often the longest then.
After we finished at Spaceship Earth, Test Track was down due to…something. It tears up a lot.
So, we wandered to Mission: SPACE and rode the Green version, which was a walk-on. Lines for this side are usually short.
However, I noticed that Orange wasn’t long either, which is a rarity.
So, I jumped on it while my wife swore at me for even considering the idea. She’s…not a fan.
Here’s where we caught a break. Test Track re-opened while we were in the general vicinity. So, only had a 20-minute wait.
You’re unlikely to get that lucky. You should plan on spending 50 minutes in line here, although the line shrinks late in the afternoon.
This aspect allowed us to ride Test Track twice!
Finishing the Day Strong
By this point, we’d had a highly productive day and just finished with a few favorites, and we even worked in a meal at Coral Reef!
The beauty of EPCOT right now is how open-ended the experience is. Only three rides come with a decent-sized wait-time.
Everything else is comically low by usual Disney standards. As the pandemic winds down, that will change because Disney will increase capacity limits.
Photo: MagicalNewsLIVE
Since that hasn’t happened yet, you can still benefit mightily from the lack of crowds.
We legitimately rode everything at the parks twice and a couple attractions more than that.
Crowds really thinned out after dinner, allowing us to ride Soarin’ twice more. On the way out, we hit Spaceship Earth as our closing time ride.
In my experience, EPCOT remains a case of the haves and have nots. When the Big Three’s wait-times are reasonable, the world is your oyster.
Photo : BuffaloSmash.net
If you struggle due to Test Track going down or unexpectedly long lines anywhere, you will have a very different time.
The other x-factor for which I cannot account is increased capacity. That’s an inevitable change coming to Walt Disney World.
Should EPCOT allow more guests without bringing back some form of digital queuing, it’ll cause line queue issues.
MickeyBlog has started a weekly wait-time article. So, please keep checking back for updated information about crowds and wait-times.
We took advantage of the pandemic and did all the rides in Epcot in 2 1/2 hrs the weekend after Labor Day without running from one side of the park to the other.