In the next posts in our series about Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort, we’ll be taking a look at the Epcot theme park.
The name Epcot stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow and the theme park, which opened in 1982, was originally designed to showcase the possible future development of technology. Although Epcot doesn’t look particularly futuristic today, it’s still a great place to visit. It covers a huge area and is packed with attractions, so ideally you should plan to spend at least a day, possibly two days there if you want to explore it properly.
Epcot is divided into two main sections: Future World and World Showcase. Future World is the first section of the park that you’ll see if you go into the park using the main entrance, and it is here that you will find the rides and attractions based on technology and science.
The Future World area of the park is divided into a number of “pavilions”, including the Mission: Space Pavilion, the Land Pavilion and the Spaceship Earth Pavilion (the large golf-ball style structure which dominates the park). Popular rides within the Future World section of Epcot include Mission: Space, Test Track, Soarin’ and The Seas with Nemo and Friends.
The second part of Epcot, World Showcase, is set around the huge lake and features eleven “pavilions”, each of which is themed on a different country: the Mexico Pavilion, the Norway Pavilion, the China Pavilion, the Germany Pavilion, the Italy Pavilion, the American Adventure Pavilion, the Japan Pavilion, the Morocco Pavilion, the France Pavilion, the United Kingdom Pavilion and the Canada Pavilion. These pavilions feature restaurants, gift shops and attractions based on the culture of the countries upon which they are themed.
There is a large car park outside of the main entrance to Epcot, so if you are travelling by hire car, you can park there. If you are staying in one of the resort’s hotels, you can take a shuttle bus to the park and Epcot is also accessible by boat from several of the hotels, Disney’s BoardWalk and Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park, and by monorail from the Magic Kingdom. However, Disney transportation can be very busy during peak hours, so travelling by rental car may be the easiest option.
Make sure that you pick up a park map as you enter Epcot, as the theme park is huge and can be disorientating.
In the next post in this series, we will take a closer look at some of the attractions that you can see in the Future World section of Epcot.
Image: Quinn Norton
Tags: American Adventure Pavilion, Canada Pavilion, car hire, China Pavilion, Disney's BoardWalk, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Epcot, florida, France Pavilion, Future World, Germany Pavilion, Italy Pavilion, Japan pavilion, Land Pavilion, Magic Kingdom, Mexico Pavilion, Mission: Space, Mission: Space Pavilion, Morocco Pavilion, Norway Pavilion, Orlando, Soarin, Spaceship Earth Pavilion, Test Track, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, United Kingdom Pavilion, Walt Disney World, World Showcase
[...] Epcot: Part 1 – this post provides you with an overview of the Epcot theme park. [...]