5 Tips for Simplifying Your Trip To Epcot’s World Showcase

While Epcot has many different attractions for its visitors—plenty of which are outside of the World Showcase—the Showcase has become one of its signatures. And as any Walt Disney World visitor will tell you, the World Showcase deserves its signature status, offering visitors a beautiful, diverse, and exciting setting in which to visit 11 different places! Every country is wonderfully designed, with authenticity down to even the tiniest details, and Cast Members there are all from their respective countries, meaning that you will be able to hear German in Germany and French in France. With such an expansive landscape to explore, a day at World Showcase might end up feeling like a race to travel the entire “world” in a day—and to experience every single thing that each country offers. Here are five tips to help you not only traverse the World Showcase, but to do it in a way that keeps you happy and relaxed!

5) Use shade whenever you can. Florida is known for its heat, and the World Showcase does not have as much tree cover as places like the Animal Kingdom do, so try to spend some time at indoor rides (or on the FriendShip Boat that crosses the lake) in order to minimize any chances of overheating. When you’re hot and thirsty, the World Showcase is going to feel more and more like a cumbersome task to complete, instead of a leisurely exploration.

4) Use the FriendShip Boats. As mentioned in tip number five, the FriendShip Boats provide refuge from Florida’s glaring sun—but they also provide you with a chance to rest your feet, while still moving towards a new destination! This can come in handy, particularly for visitors who would otherwise associate idleness with time-wasting. The Friendship Boats will also be very helpful if you find yourself in need of an easy return to the Showcase’s entrance; instead of walking all the way back, you can just catch one of these ferries!

3) Make extra time in your schedule. On any Disney vacation, the need to complete a park every day is practically instinctual. However, if you want to get everything done, in every single park, then this is not a particularly relaxing or slow-paced strategy! This rings particularly true for the World Showcase, where each country offers plenty of attractions and where street performers are in abundance. One of the last things that you want on a vacation is the feeling of walking past something that you would actually like to see, just because you don’t think that you have enough time. To avoid this disappointment and pressure, set aside lots of time for the World Showcase, or even allow yourself to come back another day to finish.

2) Visit at night. The World Showcase, like many parts of Walt Disney World, completely transforms in the evening, becoming exciting for families and romantic for couples. Some visitors associate park-visiting with the daytime, and therefore might not realize that they don’t have to race back to their resort as soon as the sun starts setting. Visiting parks at night can actually be more thrilling than visiting them during the day, and this is very true in the case of the World Showcase, so don’t stop trekking just because it’s dark. Night visits will allow you to see the “world” in a new way, and give you some of the extra time from tip number three!

1) Don’t treat the Showcase like a task-list. The World Showcase has a circular layout, which makes people think that they must travel the “world” in order; this increases the temptation to approach it like a checklist of countries that must be visited. Resist this temptation; you do not have to complete every single experience in every single country to have a fulfilling Walt Disney World vacation! Instead, just focus on the highlights that you know you want to see, ranging from specific street performances to specific countries, and breeze through the ones that you are not as interested in. Then, if you have the time, come back for half of another day to explore the countries and attractions that you may have overlooked before! Worst comes to worst, you will have spent a lot of time in countries that you really enjoy, and still seen a little bit of all the other countries as well.

The World Showcase is an absolute staple in any Walt Disney World vacation, but a visit there does not have to be a pressure-filled one. By planning ahead just a little, you can allot more time for the countries that you really like, and still have some freedom to enjoy any surprises that come along! Who knows? You may see some fantastic street shows or find yourself falling in love with a country that you had planned on overlooking. So grab a hat, put on some comfortable shoes, and enter the World Showcase for a pressure-free experience filled with international opportunities.

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