Epcot Photo Update from August 13th, 2020 Including Characters, Night Photos

Hi everyone!

We were at Epcot on Thursday afternoon/evening and I am sharing some photos from that visit. I already posted about the new fountain pylons, which went up earlier this week and look great at the entrance to the park as it is being transformed. We will talk about Epcot quite a bit on our Mousesteps Weekly show tomorrow as well.

I haven’t posted as many overall park visit updates in quite some time, but with our newly designed site it is a lot easier to do so. I will be posting more as we go to the parks each week.

Here is a quick close-up on the pylons, you can see my pylon article for more photos.

 

The entrance looks beautiful with crepe myrtles. I love the pink blossoms that have been present each visit. During the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, the stunning tabebuia trees bloom for a hot minute and then are done for the year.

The pink looks so nice against Spaceship Earth.

 

Two topiary displays had been held over since the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. The Bambi display is getting a bit overrun with plants. (The other topiary is Remy in France). So much effort was put into making a beautiful festival this year and it ran about 10 days.

Epcot was busier than we’d seen on our visits mid-week since the parks reopened. Not busy, just busier relative to our experiences – we have visited about once per week since opening.

It is nice to see workers busy on the two pavilions here. This is the first time when we’ve entered the park since reopening and have seen workers in this location.

 

I also hadn’t realized there was an outdoor relaxation station near Mission: Space. This is a little larger of an area to remove masks than most other areas I’ve seen (we don’t go indoors to take masks off).

Since it is off the beaten path and not many guests were entering the park mid-afternoon, almost nobody was in here.

The former Wonders of Life pavilion/future Play Pavilion can be seen from in the relaxation zone.

Imagineer Zach Riddley, portfolio executive, Walt Disney Imagineering said about the pavilion last year, “Built on the power of play, it introduces an immersive and interactive ‘city’ where you can explore, create, and interact with some of your favorite Disney characters. This is an experience worthy of our bold vision for Epcot – and another signature element of our transformation.”

It is really great seeing some projects progressing.

Workers were on top of the Guardians building.

Play Pavilion concept art.

Here is a look at where the relaxation zone is.

By the time we arrived around 3pm, most guests seemed to be in World Showcase.

Most visits we try food from the Taste of the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, this was the only visit so far we haven’t.

A duck stands in the grass with Spaceship Earth in view.

It was nice to see more guests enjoying the Taste of the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.

The macaron Eiffel Tower ear headbands in France were being restocked all day.

The other Eiffel Tower ear headband was here too. A lot of fun merchandise was added recently.

I posted a France merchandise article over a week ago, this shirt was new since then.

The Princess Promenade was heading out from backstage.

Belle, Princess Aurora, Jasmine and Snow White wave to guests. They are the princesses who usually meet around World Showcase but are distanced from guests now. I’ve posted about many of the motorcades/cavalcades around the parks.

Princess Aurora poses.

Snow White.

 

A butterfly with beautiful wings was nearby.

Just a couple of minutes after the Princess Promenade went by, Mickey & Friends arrived – including Pluto.

Goofy poses.

Mickey and Minnie wave from their car.

And we didn’t have much time to move before the Frozen Promenade arrived.

Elsa walks in front of the carriage.

We had never seen the three character experiences so close together previously. All three passed by in less than 20 minutes.

Anna reacts to guests.

We noticed fire coming from a torch.

 

The weather was threatening for most of the visit, our plans actually changed quite a bit from what I wanted to do. For example, the Disney Skyliner was down quite a bit and that was part of my schedule.

The House of Good Fortune opened about a week ago in the China pavilion of Epcot. The entrance is in the back of the pavilion.

Arrows lead the way.

This is one of my favorite pavilions for photos.

The Lotus Blossom Cafe is not open but there was noticeable movement inside.

Usually we would enter the House of Good Fortune here.

But you have to keep going to enter.

There is quite a bit of merchandise still for the Chinese New Year.

The spirit jersey and other items were in stock. Also some Shanghai Disneyland merchandise.

There is a display for Year of the Rat.

We went to the Imagination pavilion to ride Journey into Imagination with Figment because there was no wait (and Disney Skyliner was still down) – and Pooh was out.

Pooh alternates with Joy here, and he seemed to have gotten his butterfly net stuck in the tree. I’ve posted an article previously about them.

 

I didn’t take photos of our ride in Imagination, but it was a walk-on.

We went to The Land pavilion.

Living with the Land had no wait, but there was a tiny rush when we arrived.

While other boats around us had almost nobody in them, ours was full. This was the first time we’ve ridden with the plastic partitions. We rode a couple of weeks ago before they were added.

Welcome back.

The Mickey shaped plant here looked really nice.

This was meant to be the first day of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, which was canceled. So I took photos of the pumpkins.

The Soarin’ entrance showed a 10 minute wait. It was a few more minutes than that but fairly quick to get in. This was our first time on Soarin’ since the parks reopened.

The walk was empty, but there are markers for guests through the queue. For the ride, we were seated away from other guests.

There are partitions between some seats.

Passing by the Imagination pavilion.

 

This was the first time we saw Mary Poppins in the United Kingdom. She has distanced meet and greets at the gazebo, alternating with Alice (who we have seen several times).

Mary Poppins shows her umbrella.

 

We had dinner at the Regal Eagle again this week, I didn’t take food photos but the sunset looked nice in this direction.

Less than a half hour later, it was raining out and the park went from moderately brisk (relatively speaking) to empty very quickly.

It wasn’t even 9:00pm yet at this point, but we didn’t see many guests on the way out.

We stopped at the Italy pavilion, where there are new items. I had visited a few hours earlier but the store was a bit busy.

Gelato glasses were back in stock.

It was a beautiful evening for a walk out.

China.

Norway.

Walking through Future World.

And heading out toward the exit. We did stop to pick up a pin for a friend, Pin Traders was still open after 9:30pm.

And Spaceship Earth at the end of the night.

   

We will talk about Epcot tomorrow on our show and I will have more to share from the park in the coming days!