2/14 Oz The Great and Powerful Playground & Games Open in Advance of Epcot Flower & Garden Festival

Hi everyone!

The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival opens on March 6th, but the Oz The Great and Powerful playground has opened, along with game booths that are reminiscent of the Brave Highland Games Tournament last year!

The new Oz playground location is on the walkway between Epcot's Future World and World Showcase, close to the Imagination Pavilion. The playground is for kids, but the games are for everyone! And we each received an Oz: The Great and Powerful button and pack of seeds for playing. We are really looking forward to the film, and we covered the press conference at Comic-Con last year. 

The entrance to the Oz area on one end is a "yellow brick road" through an archway. Once through, the small walkway on the left side (which always seems to have a Xeriscape display during the Festival) is the setting for signs that explain each character. Again, this is how it worked with the Brave Highland Games Tournament last year. The playground itself has Oz The Great and Powerful theming to it, and is certainly a step up from the playgrounds that have been in this location during previous Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival years. We were told by a Cast Member that a tornado alley was still to be added, but I'm not sure where it would be included.

This is our 6th year covering Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival, here is opening day 2012 coverage (with links to other years)! This year promises to be bigger and better than ever, and will include food booths around World Showcase.

Here are photos from the new playground area – there are a few elements I missed because it was starting to rain, but it's a pretty good overview of what you'll find! The playground is open, but it was closed when we stopped by due to the weather. There is a second "yellow brick road" in the playground, and a hot air balloon basket.

 

 

 

We have a video of the play area, and of us playing the games – here is the button we received!

 

 

Nearby, the yearly flower quilt is growing in for Epcot's International Flower & Garden Festival 2013:

 

 

Journey Into Imagination in view:

 

 

Walking back, Jeff put his face through the Oz sign with hole:

 

 

And lunch was at the Biergarten in the German pavilion, one of our favorite restaurants at Walt Disney World! I was suprised and happy that Tables in Wonderland is taken on Valentine's Day. The show is fun, and the pretzel bread addictive.

 

 

The Oz playground is open each day, along with the games, until the end of the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. This is my favorite event at Epcot, and my favorite time of the year at the Walt Disney World parks! Oz the Great and Powerful opens on March 8th. Check out our video overview of this location!

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