Welcome to our one day plan for a perfect visit to Epcot! In this post, we walk you through how to put together a full day at Epcot, starting from waking up early to join a virtual queue and ending with the featured nighttime show, Luminous.

Throughout, I include sample times based on a day we spent at Epcot. As always, these times won’t necessarily be reflective of your day—besides crowd levels etc., the operating hours and showtimes for your day may vary. But even if your day looks wildly different, we’re here to help you figure out how to fit the things you want to do into a perfect day at Epcot. Let’s get to it!

Introduction to Visiting Epcot

Overall, Epcot is an easy, but not simple park to tour. As of late, waits aren’t that long and you probably don’t need Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Single Pass. But the park has multiple entrances and several really popular rides, so there is some planning to be done.

This itinerary is going to focus on the ten major rides at Epcot—Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After, Test Track, Soarin’, Spaceship Earth, Mission: SPACE, Living with the Land, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, and Journey into Imagination with Figment.

There is an eleventh ride—Gran Fiesta Tour—which we love, but it’s located inside the Mexico pavilion and rarely sees long waits, so it’s more of a “visit when you’re walking by” thing than something you need to strategically plan for.

If you’re more focused on, say, eating or drinking around the world, you might not get to all of these. If you’re bringing a little one to Epcot, you might to budget extra time for rider swap (or, in the case of Test Track, use the single rider line). And if it’s family time in the World Showcase you’re focused on, consider adding the Kidcot Fun Stops to your day.

This post largely focuses on strategy without Multi Pass or any Single Pass Lightning Lanes. If you have any of these, you’ll just get through the rides quicker and have more time for everything else. This post also assumes you do have Early Entry. Without Early Entry your morning might not be as productive.

If you plan your day differently—say, without Early Entry or with Multi Pass—that’s totally fine and this post will still help you. You’ll just want to consult the above-linked rope drop and Multi Pass to get a sense of how your strategy will change.

🚨Important Note: Test Track Now Closed🚨

Test Track (Epcot) closed for a large refurbishment / reimagining beginning June 17, 2024. Reopening is set for Late 2025. More information on how this impacts Lightning Lane and rope drop strategy can be found in those specific posts:

For the purpose of this post, it’s enough to say here that you won’t be riding Test Track at rope drop and you don’t have to plan for it at any other point in your day.

Before You Get To Epcot

There are three things to deal with before you get to Epcot:

Lightning Lane Multi Pass
Lightning Lane Single Pass
Guardians of the Galaxy Virtual Queue

Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass can be purchased days in advance of your visit (exact window depends on whether you’re at a Disney hotel or not). The virtual queue opens at 7AM on the day of your visit.

Guardians of the Galaxy Virtual Queue

Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind is, as of this update, still using a virtual queue in addition to its Single Pass Lightning Lane. There is no regular standby line.

Each day, guests have up to three opportunities to join the virtual queue:

All guests can try to join at 7AM (must have park pass reservation for Epcot).
If they fail, they can try again at 1PM (must be inside Epcot).
Moreover, guests who are staying at deluxe Disney resorts and have access to Extended Evening Hours (select nights) can join a virtual queue for those Extended Hours at 6PM

Most guests will just have the first two opportunities, at 7AM and 1PM.

If you successfully join the virtual queue, then you simply go to the ride when your group gets called. Alternatively, you can pay for a Lightning Lane Single Pass.

While the ride definitely is a “must do”, we won’t talk about it much in the rest of this post because the virtual queue won’t really play into the rest of your strategy. You’ll just need to be ready to go when called. If I had one suggestion, it is to pay some attention to the estimated return time given in the app. You don’t want to be all the way in the Germany pavilion when your group gets called.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass

Guests who purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Single Pass can make their selections days in advance of their visit. If you’re a Disney resort guest you’ll be able to make these bookings at 7AM beginning 7 days in advance of the start of your stay. All other guests begin making bookings 3 days in advance of their park visit.

If you buy Multi Pass, we recommend initial bookings of Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure OR Frozen Ever After (whichever you aren’t visiting at rope drop), along with Spaceship Earth and Mission: SPACE.

While the Guardians virtual queue has good enough availability that you might forego the Lightning Lane, we think the ride is too good to risk missing out on. Since the Lightning Lane can sell out before you get to try the virtual queue, we recommend buying it in advance. You can visit the Thrill Data page for the ride to see if these trends have continued at the time of your visit.

Basic Outline of an Epcot Day

Our basic approach to Epcot is to start with rides, take a lap around the World Showcase, ride a few more rides, take a second lap around the World Showcase, finish the rides, and finish our day.

We’ve been told this approach is…unreasonable…for some people. Admittedly, we are big walkers, but I don’t think multiple laps around the World Showcase is more than one would typically expect to walk at a theme park.

In any case, you don’t need to take multiple laps around the World Showcase, but we find the flexibility advantageous for timing rides, entertainment, meals, snacks, drinks, and pretty much everything else. It’s a good way to ensure you get to see “everything” without feeling like either “half” of your day (rides vs. countries) is rushed.

Arrival, Early Entry, and Rope Drop at Epcot

Reminder, you can read more about Epcot rope drop with and without Early Entry here.

Epcot has two entrances—the World Showcase entrance served by the Skyliner and the Boardwalk, and the Main entrance served by all other methods of transportation.

We’re currently recommending you arrive 30-45 minutes before you’ll be allowed in the park (so 60-75 minutes before scheduled open if you have Early Entry and 30 minutes before schedule open if you don’t have Early Entry), but busier days will call for an additional 15 minutes early arrival.

Rope drop at Epcot is all about three rides—Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Test Track and Frozen Ever After. If you have Lightning Lanes, you’ll want your rope drop strategy to complement those bookings.

Reminder: Test Track is closed for refurbishment until an unspecified date in 2025.

Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is the highest priority but only worth rope dropping if you’re coming from the World Showcase entrance (we discuss this much more in the rope drop post linked at the start of this section).

Frozen Ever After and Test Track are more or less equal priority. When we’re with our toddler, we prioritize Frozen Ever After and use single rider for Test Track. Without a little one, it’s really a matter of personal preference between these two rides, and on all but the worst days you should be able to get both done.

You can start at Frozen from either entrance. For a long time, guests coming from the World Showcase entrance had about a five minute advantage. More recently, we found the front entrance to be preferable. It’s a mixed and unpredictable bag at this point, but not something worth stressing over. (In the long run, I’m waiting on Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind to get a regular standby queue. When that happens, I expect rope drop procedures at Epcot to settle into a more permanent state.)

Test Track is closest to the main entrance, and it will often make sense to start your day there if you’re using that entrance.

You’ll typically want to head into the World Showcase around 11AM. Before then, much of it won’t be open (some stores are opening even later these days).

How much you accomplish before heading out on your first lap to the World Showcase will depend on a few factors. For starters, if the park opens at 9AM you’ll get more done than if it opens at 10AM. If you have Early Entry or Lightning Lane access, you’ll get more done.

A good goal is two to three rides before heading to the World Showcase. Ideally these are two of Test Track, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Frozen Ever After, by far the three most popular rides in the park. Soarin’ is the next highest priority after these, so if you can do two of these and Soarin’ to start your day, you’re in fantastic shape.

Whenever you ride Soarin’, it will make sense to ride Living with the Land as well, as they’re located in The Land pavilion. That pavilion is also home to the Awesome Planet film.

On slower days, you’ll be able to fit even more into the morning. Most of the rides are in the front of the park, and if waits are short there’s usually no good reason to delay them. You could theoretically finish them all before heading to the World Showcase for a late lunch.

The Epcot Starbucks is located in Future World, on the Test Track side. We’ll typically grab coffee before heading out on our first lap around the World Showcase. Here’s a sample morning with a 9AM park open:

7:45 – Arrive
8:30 – Early Entry Begins
8:37 – Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
9AM — Official Park Open
9:25 – Frozen Ever After (35 minute wait)
10:01 — Soarin’ (20 minute wait)
10:16 – Living with the Land (walk on)
11:16 — Guardians of the Galaxy (via virtual queue)

Again, you don’t have control over when your Guardians group gets called, so you’ll actually just fit it in (about an hour of your time, going to the ride, waiting, and riding) whenever you get called.

Visiting The World Showcase

Epcot’s World Showcase (“the countries”) is a circle around the World Showcase lagoon comprising eleven pavilions themed to Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, The United States, Japan, Morocco, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Each pavilion has food, beverages, shopping, and unique live streetmosphere entertainment.. You’ll find the exact schedule in the My Disney Experience app. Several of the pavilions also have small walkthrough galleries with some cultural focus.

A few pavilions also have attractions. You already know about Frozen Ever After in Norway and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in France. Mexico has a boat ride, Gran Fiesta Tour, inside its pavilion. The ride has no Lightning Lane and sometimes sees ways of 20+ minutes. We love it, but we’ll usually only wait 10 minutes or less for it.

Theaters in China and Canada play films about those respective countries throughout the day, though the Canada theater is sometimes used a festival space. A theater in France plays the Beauty and the Beast Sing Along most of the day and Impressions de France at select times.

The American Adventure is a 30 minute animatronic / theater show in the USA pavilion (the pavilion is confusingly also named “The American Adventure”).

If an Epcot festival is ongoing—one almost always is—you’ll find additional culinary booths throughout the park, the bulk of which are in the World Showcase. The festivals might also bring additional entertainment or activities to the pavilions.

There’s no “right” way to take multiple laps around the World Showcase. You might alternate pavilions, or spend a little time in once on each lap, maybe alternating between snacks and drinks if you’re planning on doing lots of that. The only thing you really need to plan around is the entertainment schedule—try and catch about half the shows your first lap through and half your second lap.

If you spend about 2.5 hours from 11:30AM to 2PM on your first lap, you could average 30 minutes a pavilion for 5 pavilions, or nearly half the pavilions.

Lunch at Epcot

With plenty of restaurants around the World Showcase and a few in the rest of the park, Epcot abounds with good lunch options. We don’t recommend table service dining for lunch—it’s too time-consuming too early in the day. This leaves two options—quick service or mix and match snacks and festival food.

I think what you choose here is mostly a matter of preference. It’s a hassle managing our toddler and festival food and trying to get the toddler to eat an adequate amount of festival food without a proper table (most tables around the booths are standing), so we don’t do much festival food right now (or, when we do, it often comes with an additional full stop for a toddler meal). Most restaurants at Epcot don’t have mobile order. We often dine at Regal Eagle Smokehouse, which does have mobile order.

11:45 – Lunch
12:45 – Segio (performer in Italy)
1:30 – Matsuriza (drum show in Japan)

Early Afternoon Rides at Epcot

With one lap around the World Showcase done, it’s time to get back to your ride list. You hopefully got three rides done this morning, so you’ve got six of our core rides left, plus maybe Guardians if you haven’t ridden that yet.

By the time you head back to the World Showcase, you want to have at least three of Frozen Ever After, Test Track, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Soarin’ done. Try and get two of Mission: SPACE, Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, Journey into Imagination with Figment, and The Seas with Nemo and Friends done, too.

That means you’ll be done with five rides, leaving four for the evening (again, plus the virtual queue if you haven’t been called). But the more you can get done now, the better—if any rides have less than 15 minute waits, you might just want to stream right through them to free up your evening for other things.

Of particular note, if you’re watching the the nighttime show—Luminous—you’ll be doing that from the World Showcase. If your step count is really getting to you, you probably want to spend more time in Future World on rides now rather than having to squeeze some in between your second World Showcase loop and the nighttime show.

If you spend about 2 hours on rides here you shouldn’t have trouble meeting our modest goal of four total rides completed. You can spend more time on rides now if you want, just make sure you’re aware if anything you wanted to see in the World Showcase is ending soon. Some shows have final showtimes around 5PM.

2:25 – Mission: SPACE (10 min wait)
2:45 – The Seas with Nemo and Friends (5 min wait)
3PM – Journey into Imagination with Figment (walk on)
4:30 – Test Track (65 min wait)

Evening Planning at Epcot

At this point you should have pretty clear expectations for how long the rest of the World Showcase is going to take you, and you should be looking at a small selection of remaining rides, most of which should have relatively short waits.

Generally, if you pushed yourself a bit or planned well, you should have time for a table service meal at any of Epcot’s great restaurants. Our favorite remains Biergarten in Germany, where you’ll find (roughly) hourly performances by Oktoberfest Musikanten. Space 220 is a popular option that we found to be mostly worth the hype. Akershus and Garden Grill offer character dining options.

It’s worth reminding you here that Epcot is huge and not always easily navigable. Coral Reef Restaurant, for example, is about a mile from the American Adventure pavilion. Time is more valuable in the evening, so be sure to plan your meals and adjacent activities accordingly.

The Epcot nighttime show is Luminous: The Symphony of Us and it is usually shown around 9PM or park close, though showtimes will vary. If you choose not to watch Luminous, you can plan to get in line for one last ride (usually Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Test Track, or Frozen Ever After) just before park close. Know, though, that if the ride happens to break down late in the day it might not reopen—this is a risk you run if you put off a ride until the very end of the day.

If you’re watching Luminous, Disney Tourist Blog has a good post on Epcot fireworks viewing spots. I don’t think show is a must-do, but it’s got fireworks, so it’s probably going to make most people happy (or, in the case of our toddler, absolutely terrified).

4:50 – Ride Gran Fiesta Tour (Mexico)
(Dinner throughout World Showcase via small bites)
5:30 – Reflections of China Film (China)
6:30 – The American Adventure (USA)
7:30 – Alberta Bound (Canada)
8:17 – Spaceship Earth (walk on)
9PM – Luminous

Notice this day ended with an extra bit of walking—from the Canada pavilion to Spaceship Earth and then back to the World Showcase for Luminous. As I said earlier, if you want to avoid these extra steps, consolidate your visits to the rides of Future World.

Conclusions

This nice thing about Epcot is that the World Showcase really offers you the opportunity to make whatever you’d like out of your day. Eating, drinking, shopping, entertainment—add in the unique festival offerings throughout most days of the year, and it’s not hard to fill a full day at the park.

The downside is that you’re working with a relatively thin lineup of rides, especially when you’re talking about all-star attractions. The problem is that you wind up with three rides—Remy’s, Frozen, and Test Track—that often command hour-plus waits. If you use Lightning Lane Multi Pass to bypass these waits you save a lot of time, but you might wind up with so much extra time that it doesn’t feel like Multi Pass was worth it.

All in all, the World Showcase makes Epcot a fun place to tour—get out there and enjoy the drummers in Japan, the funnel cake in the United States, and the beer in Germany. Prost!

Complete Itinerary

7:45 – Arrive
8:30 – Early Entry Begins
8:37 – Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
9AM — Official Park Open
9:25 – Frozen Ever After (35 minute wait)
10:01 — Soarin’ (20 minute wait)
10:16 – Living with the Land (walk on)
11:16 — Guardians of the Galaxy (via virtual queue)
First Lap in World Showcase
11:45 – Lunch
12:45 – Sergio (performer in Italy)
1:30 – Matsuriza (drum show in Japan)
Back to Former Future World
2:25 – Mission: SPACE (10 min wait)
2:45 – The Seas with Nemo and Friends (5 min wait)
3PM – Journey into Imagination with Figment (walk on)
4:30 – Test Track (65 min wait)
Second Lap in World Showcase (Dinner via snacks throughout)
4:50 – Ride Gran Fiesta Tour (Mexico)
5:30 – Reflections of China Film (China)
6:30 – The American Adventure (USA)
7:30 – Alberta Bound (Canada)
8:17 – Spaceship Earth (walk on)
9PM – Luminous: The Symphony of Us

All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered

Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.

Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.

When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!

Don't forget to master your Disney World Lightning Lane Guide and Strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, Epcot Lightning Lane Strategy, Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, and Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Strategy.

Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.

Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.

Related Posts