Exploring Disney’s EPCOT: A Day of Fun and Food in Orlando

Intro

I had just started my trip to Orlando, and I had just had an amazing morning in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. But my park hop day at Disney had just started. I still had Epcot and Magic Kingdom to do today, and a few more reservations for Dining and Lighting Lanes, including an additional Single Pass for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. The new addition to Epcot: GEO-82 was also on the list, and of course, I could not avoid getting some dishes from the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.

Let’s do this!

GEO-82

60 days in advance of this trip, I was able to snatch a reservation for this day, specifically at this time when I knew I was going to be already in Epcot after Hollywood Studios. I seemed before difficult, but the level of planning I had to have was impressive even for me lol.

But after taking the Skyliner to Epcot, I had a Lighting Lane for Soarin’. We almost ran there, and after tapping a couple of times, I was able to get another LL for later in Magic Kingdom. At this point in the early afternoon it gets more difficult to get good LLs but oh well, I know we’ll have fun.

I left anyone younger than 21 years old at Sunshine Seasons, the quick service next to Soarin’, and I went to GEO-82. For some reason people still get lost kinda trying to find this lounge that they had to put this sign outside lol.

Then you start walking on this amazing path and OMG, it is actually really beautiful.

After telling your name on the reservation, they leave you in this waiting area, where somewhere would come and guide you to your table. Since I was by myself I was instructed to sit at the bar, which I did not mind. I was just there to get to know the place and not for a long stay since my family was waiting for me.

Once inside of the actual lounge, it feel pretty bright and modern. There were a lot of references to Epcot and the Spaceship Earth, but not many to Disney thankfully. It was definitely a safe space for adults +21.

The lounge looked luxurious, big it was not big. Although, I have seen many lounges smaller than this one.

I wanted to try something to eat, but my money and eyes were on the food from the festival. So I just ordered a mocktail, A Walk Through the Garden: Seedlip Garden 108 Non-Alcoholic Spirit, Basil, Fennel, Lemon, Hella Cocktail Co. Orange Bitters, The Bitter Truth Celery Bitters, Bubbles. I definitely tasted the herbs, but yeah, this felt more like a lemonade, than other mocktails that at least try to pass as cocktails. And for $17.00 I could have definitely get something way better anywhere else oof. Super expensive.

It also did not help the fact that the guy sitting right next to me was absolutely loud, interrupting and trying to engage in conversations with the cast members behind the bar. The cast members have a difficult task of keeping everyone happy while also not being mean to them, but of this guy was drunk then they should have do something about it. It kinda ruined the experience for me.

Once finished and paying the tip, I went to the bathrooms which were amazing. I felt like in some expensive restaurant in Manhattan. And then looked out of the windows to see the view. Not much really.

More attractions

After reuniting with my family, we had to go to the second and last Single Pass Lighting Lane of the day: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which depending of the music can be one of my favorite attractions in Walt Disney World, competing with Rise of the Resistance. The line was extremely long for the LL, but it moved quickly, once the chunks of people were loaded in the pre-show rooms.

2025 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

From here, we just started to go down the list of places for the 2025 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival. And the closest one was Flavors from Fire, which never disappoints any year. From here, I got the Smoked Corned Beef with house-made potato chips, cheese curds, pickled onions, and beer cheese fondue.

But also got the Rodizio-style Grilled Beef Skewer with marble potatoes, charred shallots, roasted baby peppers, and chimichurri Both dishes were amazing. Love the meat, and here it was just perfectly cooked.

After we started walking around the World Showcase, we found The Alps, not to be confused with the actual mountain range I visited earlier this year lol. It was next to the Germany Pavilion.

The Raclette cheese look amazing, although the smell of the cheese was so intense in this area, we had to go a little bit further to eat what we get. Coincidentally, I was talking to a friend who is coming to New York and mentioned the Raclette restaurant in the Lower East Side, but it had been shut down for years. I was in shock learning that. I went there a few times and I loved it. Anyways, time for me to get raclette from Disney…

And that I did, I got Warm Raclette Swiss Cheese with baby potatoes, cornichons, and baguette from The Alps. I saved the bread for later, but the rest was actually very easy to be eaten. The cheese itself was not too smelly, but my family lost the appetite, and I had to eat this by myself ugh. It was pretty good though.

Around the World Showcase

It was my family’s first time in Epcot also. Unfortunately, we could not do more rides besides Soarin’ and Guardians. And soon we would have to jump to Magic Kingdom on the monorail. For now, I wanted to give them a quick look of all of the pavilions this park has. First, of course was Mexico.

We went inside the pyramid and they were not too surprised lol. I think it is really amazing how the inside looks, with the architecture and night setting.

Then we went to China, quickly passing by Norway, and saw the Temple of Heaven. I have been so lucky to see the OG one in Beijing a couple of times. So letting my family seeing a replica even was amazing.

After getting the raclette in The Alps, we passed by the Germany pavilion to see the little village with the trains on it.

We fully ignored Italy (sorry, we had places to go), and passed by the American Adventure Pavilion, where the Eat to the Beat Concert was happening at the time. New Found Glory was the band for today, and they were giving everything. We stopped for a moment just to see them.

Japan was next, and we did walked it a little bit more. We even got into the Mitsukoshi Department Store, where I was surprised to see a lot of Nintendo stuff, including Pokémon, especially since they have a contract with Universal, and a whole land in Epic Universe.

Last land before walking straight to the monorail, was France. Everyone was so excited to go to Magic Kingdom, that we did not even get close to the attractions or restaurants. My intention was to get something from their festival booth, but the line was ridiculously long.

We then walked to the front of the park, passing finally by Spaceship Earth, and taking a bunch of pictures, and we were on our way to Magic Kingdom. But you will see the end of this Disney Day on our next blog. Until then, you can see below more of our experiences around Disney World and Orlando.

A chill day at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park

Since we stayed in Pop Century Resort, we were given access to a Disney water park for free on Check In day. Unlike the last time I did this, only was park was opened this time: Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park. We took the bus here, and started our adventure.

Renting a locker is almost mandatory here, so prepare for this expense. The good thing is you can open it as many times as you want, and thankfully because we did this numerous times through the day. We enjoyed many of the water attractions, and even got to do the 3 sections of the Crush ‘n’ Gusher water coaster.

We enjoyed the slides and other attractions as well, but my family started getting tired, so we went to eat and then just leave the park.

Leaning Palms was an excellent option, especially with the Mobile Order, and the got the Bacon Cheeseburger and Chicken and Shrimp Rice Bowl. All of the food was amazing.

We took a bunch of pictures around the park on the way out, and checked the souvenir store Singapore Sals.

ICON Park

Because not everything was Disney and Universal in this trip, we stopped at ICON Park for coffee, food and some entertainment. You could easily spend a whole day here, if you are willing to do many of the offerings. We started by getting some coffee and food from Juan Valdez, because of course. It’s always nice seeing good Colombian representation everywhere.

In the same building, you can find the Madame Tussauds Orlando, which I have never been attracted to. Like I have visited many many cities where they have one of these wax museums, and I have never been like ok let me spend a couple of hours here lol.

SEALife, which we visited a few years back, but I think it is more oriented to children. We had just visited the Aquarium in New York anyways.

For breakfast we did not go too far from there to a Denny’s where I got an omelet. It was so good, but I was full after the 4th bite. Wow, super dense.

And for the night, we went to get Bacon Cheeseburger and Chicken Sandwich with melted cheese fries from Shake Shack, which honestly, never disappoints. But do not miss the last part of our Disney Day journey in Magic Kingdom on the next blog post.