Disney World, Day 5 | EPCOT

Check out my EPCOT vlog HERE!

Morning Resort Hop to the Riviera:

When I was researching for our trip, I heard so many people rave about Le Petite Cafe —the coffee shop inside of the Riviera resort. As an avid coffee lover, I knew this was something I wanted to work into our trip to see what the hype was all about.

Since our initial plan was to utilize the Skyliner station at the Riviera, I planned to try Le Petite Cafe on our EPCOT day. We kept this plan, even though we decided not to use the Skyliner.

After getting ready for the day, we made the short walk over to the Riviera. We stopped to look at the the beautiful mosaics outside, and then headed inside to the lobby where Le Petite Cafe is located.

Le Petite Cafe:

Before I give me review, let me preface by saying that I don’t really go for sweet coffee very often and that is mostly what is on the menu at Le Petite. With that being said, I didn’t love Le Petite as much as I had hoped —but that could entirely be my fault, haha! I probably should have ordered differently…

I ordered the Shakerato (double espresso shaken with demerara sugar), and a blueberry muffin. The Shakerato was extremely sweet, which just isn’t my favorite way to start the day. And the blueberry muffin was just a generic blueberry muffin (honestly, I’ve had better from places like Dunkin Donuts or Sam’s Club). Nothing was bad, but I don’t think I would go out of my way to visit Le Petite Cafe again. If I was staying at the Riviera, or resort hopping again I would just order something different.

Arriving at EPCOT:

We got to EPCOT using Lyft. We were picked up from the Riviera at 8:02am and dropped off at the EPCOT ride share location at 8:13am. The ride cost us $8.08 before tip.

We got a little extra magic on our way into the park! A parking attendant saw that our whole family was dressed in Frozen themed outfits. She said that we needed stickers to go with our outfits and pulled Olaf stickers out of her vest and gave them to us. It was a fun little start to the day!

Early Entry:

We walked up to the entrance right before the gates opened for early entry. Once the gates opened and we got through security, things got a little confusing for a second. The crowd went straight towards Spaceship Earth, which seemed like the natural thing to do, but there were a few signs that said Early Entry this way, and pointed to the right. We didn’t see many people following the signs, but followed them to the right which eventually led us to a crowd that was bottleneck-ing through a cast member check point. It was chaotic for a second, but after scanning our magic bands and getting through the bottleneck, we entered EPCOT officially and things were smooth from there.

Our first photos with Spaceship Earth:

When we got through the Entrance crowd, we stopped at Pin Traders for a second and then continued walking into EPCOT. We stopped at this cute little courtyard behind Spaceship Earth, and I was so surprised that there was no crowd, so we stopped to take photos. I believe this is a Photo Pass location later in the day, but there wasn’t a photographer out yet when we came through so we just took our own photos.

I honestly think these photos are better than the ones we took at the front of the park later in the day, so I would definitely recommend stopping here for a quick photo in the morning!

Flower & Garden Festival:

EPCOT is known for its rotating festivals throughout the year. Each festival has a few key elements that guests expect year after year, including themed food and drinks. We were in EPCOT during the 2025 Flower & Garden Festival! One of the main attractions of this festival, is the Disney character topiaries that are scattered around the park. I didn’t get to take photos of all of them, but some of our favorites were Figment, the Crocodile from Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and of course Anna & Elsa!

The food booths for the Flower & Garden festival, were mostly focused on fruits and vegetables or a farm-to-table theme. We didn’t visit very many festival booths, but Brian did try some things from the Japan festival booth (which I will talk about later in this blog post).

Frozen Ever After:

I am a huge fan of Frozen, so I knew our EPCOT outfits would be Frozen themed and that Frozen Ever After would be a priority ride for us. I was on the fence about purchasing Lightning Lane Multipass for this park because there are only a couple rides that have long wait times in EPCOT. With the wait times for Frozen being really long throughout the day, I decided it was worth it since this was a priority ride for me.

This was our first lightning lane of the day at 9:15am. We planned to meet Anna and Elsa before our ride time, but the wait times were already sky-high so we decided not to meet them and went straight to our lightning lane instead.

I was a little scared about this ride because of the drop. I researched and watched ride POV videos and kept telling myself I was a big girl and I could handle it, but I was definitely still freaking out when we got on the ride, haha! I felt prepared for the drop and I was relieved when it was over…but I didn’t know there was a second drop! That was a surprise, but I survived and I’m glad I faced the fear. I did really enjoy this ride!

Butterfly Garden:

We started making our way towards our next lightning lane, but we had a little bit of time to kill after Frozen. We decided to stop in to this butterfly garden exhibit that was on display for Flower and Garden. I love butterflies, and if I could ever devote time and attention to learn how to garden and keep it alive I would definitely grow a butterfly garden because I think they are stunning!

As you walk through this exhibit you will see a variety or bright and colorful plants, butterfly houses full of butterflies and cocoons, and of course you will see butterflies flying all around you.

It doesn’t take a very long to walk through, but it is just a pretty and peaceful part of your park day. I think things like this are what makes EPCOT so unique as a theme park. It’s not just rides and food, it’s a variety of unique and cultural experiences!

Journey Into Imagination with Figment:

Our second lightning lane of the day was Journey Into Imagination with Figment at 10:05am. The listed wait time wasn’t very long, but we did get to bypass a lot of people with the lightning lane.

I definitely wanted to experience this ride because I feel like Figment is one of the icons of this park, but I didn’t expect to like it as much as we did. Even my husband really liked this ride! It does feel a little outdated and cheesy, but overall I think it is a really cute ride and a great reminder to use your imagination. Maybe this makes me sound old, but I feel like imagination and imaginative play is a dying skill these days so I love that there is something in Disney World that promotes it to a new generation. After all, Disney wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for someone that knew how to use their imagination!

Living with the Land:

Lightning lane number three was Living with the Land at 10:50am. I was really excited about this one! Once again, this is just such a happy and relaxing experience. I feel like the views in the greenhouse just makes you want to lay out a towel and grab a drink and soak up the sunshine. It feels calming even in the midst of the busy-ness of a theme park.

Other Rides:

There is definitely more than three rides in EPCOT, however we decided to end our rides here and not book any other lightning lanes. I would like to ride Ratatouille at some point, but at this point I was ready to jump into the World Showcase and site see.

I experienced something that I don’t hear anyone else talking about when it comes to theme parks... I want to call it ride-fatigue but it could be more like fear-of-the-unknown-fatigue. I don’t love surprises, I don’t love rides, I don’t love not knowing what is about to happen, and I think those feelings combined just added onto the exhaustion that comes with 5 back-to-back theme park days and I hit my limit. I definitely could have fought harder to try to get a lightning lane for other things in the park, but I was happy to put the rides behind us and move on to snacking and shopping.

All that to say… if you are like me and you don’t do well with the unknown, you might experience this at some point too and it is ok to limit your rides even if you did pay for Lightning Lane Multi Pass.

Journey of Water:

Before our Disney trip, my husband and I finally watched Moana (and Moana 2) for the first time. I definitely thought it was such a cute movie and I fell in love with Pua and Heihei! I was excited to see this interactive Moana exhibit!

Not only is it a fun interactive area, but it is also stunning! It makes you feel like you are immersed in a tropical pacific island environment. You are surrounded by music, and water features, and lush greenery at every turn. I loved looking for the moana scenes and characters in the rocks, and I loved being able to generate a response from the water with an action. So unique and fun!

Also, this was a great place to cool off as the temps started to rise! I saw so many families letting their kids get totally soaked, which kept the kids happy and cool in the heat and gave the parents a moment to relax too.

Sea Base:

Next to The Seas with Nemo and Friends, there is an aquarium called the Sea Base. This aquarium that is tucked inside of a theme park, is actually the second largest aquarium in the United States (behind the Georgia Aquarium). Aquariums are always fun to see, but the real beauty of the Sea Base is that it is air conditioned, haha!

Jokes aside, we loved seeing all of the sea creatures! We especially loved the manatees, turtles, sharks, and sting rays. I also loved seeing the varieties or coral and anemones in the fish tanks because of all of their various textures and vibrant colors! If you go to the Sea Base, don’t forget to look for the hidden Mickey!

On a side note, we found the Hidden Disney mystery pin packs in the Nemo gift shop. We didn’t see these pin packs anywhere else throughout the entire week we were there. I don’t know if this is a common thing, but since this shop is kind of tucked away I would recommend checking here if there is a specific pin pack that you are looking for but haven’t been able to find.

Photos with Spaceship Earth:

Having completed the rides and attractions that we wanted to do at the front of the park, we were almost ready to jump into the World Showcase. But, before we left the front of the park we did want to make sure we got our Photo Pass photos with Spaceship Earth. These photos aren’t my favorite Photo Pass photos, but I’m still glad we got them. At the front of the park you can also find a 360-degree Photo and a Super Zoom Magic Shot Photo Pass option in addition to the traditional photos.

On a side note, I kind of get a laugh out of our Photo Pass photos here because they feel like advertisement photos, or the type of photos that would come in a picture frame, haha!

Pin Trading:

During our week in Disney I was searching for a couple specific pins… Specifically the Cinderella Princess Gemstone pin (or any princess gemstone pins from the collection), and the Llama Poison Bottle pin from the Imaginative Icons box. I was able to find a few gemstone pins on the boards around the park, but Cinderella was harder to find. The Llama Poison was nearly impossible… I opened SO many Imaginative Icon boxes, but I never pulled the one pin that I was seriously looking for. I went into our EPCOT day saying “Today is going to be a good pin day, I can feel it!” and that statement was about to come true…

When we decided to get our Spaceship Earth photos before going to the World Showcase, I locked into the My Disney Experience App to get us to the Photo Pass location. I was so focused on the map that I almost missed the heard of people sitting under Spaceship Earth in front of Pin Traders with stacks upon stacks of pins. Thankfully, Brian pointed them out to me!

To be honest, trading with serious pin traders was so intimidating to me! I was so scared to go up to them, and some were nicer than others but eventually someone overheard me asking about the Cinderella gemstone and said that they had it! She traded me for the Haunted Mansion pin from the Play in the Parks collection, which I was happy to get rid of.

Then the real magic happened… I spotted a Llama Poison pin in someone’s book. I asked the gentleman with the book if he was willing to trade that pin. He said that it was his wife’s pin and ultimately up to her. She was hard to bargain with, and it took me three pins (a Munchling and two Play in the Parks) but I finally got my Llama Poison pin! It all felt like a blur, but I was on cloud 9 after that! If you are looking for a pin, don’t give up hope and don’t be afraid to start conversations with people who are open to trading.

Cooling off at Connections Cafe:

It was getting warm and we were hitting a little bit of an afternoon slump, so we decided to take a break at Connections Cafe. I got a cold brew and we opened a few mystery pin packs and just took a second to sit down and talk and cool off in the A/C. I highly recommend planning for and enjoying A/C breaks throughout the day. They help you recharge and enjoy your park day to the fullest!

Entering World Showcase, the Canada Pavilion:

I purposefully planned all of our lightning lanes for the morning so that we could get those out of the way back-to-back and then enter the World Showcase. We started in Canada (controversial, I know) around 2:30pm.

This maple popcorn was one of the snacks that I was most excited to try, and it lived up to the hype! If you love maple-flavored treats like I do, I would recommend giving this treat a try. It was perfectly sweet and salty, and wasn’t overly hard or chewy like caramel corn can be. And the smell was amazing!

I even tried to make this popcorn at home…which unfortunately wasn’t even close, but i’m still hoping I can come up with a dupe for when I’m craving a Disney treat.

Family History in the UK Pavilion:

Finding your family crest is one of the unique experiences that is available in the U.K. pavilion. When you enter The Crown & Crest you will find British-inspired souvenirs and goods, just like every other pavilion in EPCOT. However, you will also find a section of the store that is dedicated to historical family crests. You can search for your last name in the large book on the counter, and if you know a little bit of your family heritage the cast member there can search for your family crest. It is totally free to do the search and hear about your family history, but if you want to take home a printed version of your crest it is available for a fee.

We found this experience super fascinating, so we took spent time there and searched our family histories. We also purchased the family crest for my maiden name and gave it to my dad. If you're into family history and unique experiences, I definitely recommend stopping at The Crown & Crest to learn a little more about your heritage!

Heartbreak in the France Pavilion:

That title might sound a little bit dramatic, but let me set the scene…

If there was one treat that I was looking forward to the most in EPCOT it was the Croque Glacé from L'Artisan des Glaces. When I first saw this treat on a TikTok video I immediately added it to my must-try list, and I had been dreaming of it ever since.

So the day finally arrives, it was a hot day in EPCOT and an ice cream sandwich was going to be the perfect treat! We get in line at L'Artisan des Glaces, and I overhear the girl in front of me ask about allergy cross-contamination for the sorbet because she was allergic to dairy. The cast member told her that they use the same machines for ice cream and sorbet, so they couldn’t confirm the cross-contamination risk. I’m not allergic to dairy…but I am allergic to mango, and L'Artisan des Glaces makes a mango sorbet. If there was a dairy-risk for her, there would also be a mango risk for me. 😭

The risk may be minimal, but I decided that it wasn’t worth the risk and we left without ice cream.

The Japan Pavilion:

Our next major stop around the World Showcase was the Japan pavilion. This was the pavilion that Brian was most excited for. I was very impressed because it felt like there was a lot in this pavilion, whereas some other pavilions felt like you walked through the ambiance without any real activity. There was a ton of food options, and a huge store full of Japanese products.

Brian stopped at Hanami, the Japan Flower & Garden Festival booth, to try a some Japanese inspired cuisine. He ordered Takoyaki (octopus tako balls served with spicy mayo, okonomiyaki sauce, and crunch rice pearls) and Kyoto Boba (crafted kyoho [Japanese black grape] juice with strawberry popping boba). He said he really liked both items! I tried a sip of his Kyoto Boba and I also liked it —it tasted like a unique type of grape juice.

Since I couldn’t get the Croque Glacé, my next snack choice was Kakigori from the Kabuki Cafe in Japan. Kakigori is authentic shaved with syrup imported from Japan. This treat comes in a variety of flavors, but I chose the Kyoho Grape and added sweet cream topping. The shaved ice itself didn’t taste any different than any other grape shaved ice/snow cone I’ve ever had, but the sweet cream was a different twist. I like snow cones, they were one of my favorite treats as a kid, so I enjoyed this while we strolled through the Japanese Department Store, Mitsukoshi. We purchased some Japanese snacks to try later, and then we continued on our World Showcase journey.

The Rest of the World Showcase:

First, let me talk about this view. I know Spaceship Earth is stunning when you are standing in front of it, but this view from the backside of World Showcase is breathtaking to me, especially with the bright Florida sky overhead!

Morocco: This pavilion had some really pretty architecture that would be great for photos, but overall there wasn’t much to do here in my opinion.

American Adventure: Next time I am in EPCOT I think my main meal of the day will be here, because everything smelled so good! That might be crazy, though, since I am American and have cultural cuisine from around the World at my fingertips in EPCOT, haha! The Art of Disney shop is also in this pavilion, and I really wanted a piece of Disney art to take home, but nothing really caught my eye. I’m hoping that I can go back for Festival of the Arts one day and find a piece of Disney art to bring home then.

Italy: Once again, the sights and theming were stunning! There are a lot of places to eat and drink in this pavilion, so if you like Italian cuisine this would be a great place for you.

Germany: This pavilion felt cozy to me, and I don’t know how else to describe that, haha! We decided to sit and have a snack and shade break here, and something funny happened to us. We ordered two jumbo pretzels from Sommerfest, and asked for cheese thinking that “beer cheese” that usually comes with pretzels would be a Germany thing… we were definitely wrong about that, haha! The cast member politely (but emphatically) told us that Germans do not eat cheese with their pretzels and if we wanted a pretzel with cheese we would have to go back to the America pavilion, haha! So note to self: if you wan’t cheese go to America, and side note the jumbo pretzels were huge and we definitely did not need two of them. Learn from our experiences, haha!

Outpost: The Refreshment Outpost by Coca-Cola is the only stand in this pavilion, but it’s an important one because you definitely need to stay hydrated around the World Showcase (especially if you are doing the drink around the world challenge).

China: To be honest, by the time we reached China we were exhausted, haha! We looked through this pavilion, but it wasn’t really eye catching to us and we moved through pretty quickly.

Norway: We hoped to make it back here to meet Anna & Elsa, but their meeting location was closed by the time we made it back (I got photos with their topiaries instead). There is also a bakery in this pavilion that is popular, but we didn’t even look at it because we were already feeling full and we were on our way to dinner.

Dinner in the Mexico Pavilion:

There are several options for Mexican cuisine in the Mexico pavilion. There are sit-down and quick-service options, but we decided to go with La Cantina de San Angel. This quick-service location has open-air seating that overlooks the World Showcase Lagoon. The is also indoor seating available at certain times throughout the day, but they close it before dinner. I assume that they do this so that people don’t camp out there for a fireworks view.

I ordered the Nachos which came with tortilla chips topped with white nacho cheese, ground beef and beans, tomatoes, jalapeños, and sour Cream. I love any variety of Mexican food so I did think this was good but it wasn’t great. I have definitely had better Nachos, and I think if I ate in the Mexico pavilion again I would try a different restaurant.

Hidden PhotoPass:

After dinner, we started strolling back around the World Showcase to find a good spot for fireworks. On our way we stumbled across a “hidden” PhotoPass location in the U.K. pavilion where there was a romantic garden that has an arch covered in twinkle lights. We got some cute PhotoPass photos here that were a little different than the traditional “stand here,” “smile,” “point here,” PhotoPass shots. So make sure you are always keeping an eye out for those bright green PhotoPass shirts because you never know where they are going to be.

EPCOT Fireworks:

You could literally be anywhere in EPCOT and have a good view of the fireworks, but we had a specific plan of action for getting out of the park after fireworks which would be easier if we were in the back of the park. I also think that being in the back of the park is ideal because you get to see the fireworks and Spaceship Earth at the same time.

We camped out between France and Morocco and I feel like this was perfect. We got there early, but it was worth it because were “front row” and had a totally unobstructed view.

Leaving EPCOT:

The morning of our EPCOT day we were dropped off at the ride share drop off location at the front of the park, which was great because we were able to get the grand EPCOT entrance experience and see Spaceship Earth as soon as we walked in. However, I had an idea to try leaving through the International Gateway to cut down on the crowds, and it totally worked! Here is our strategy…

We left EPCOT through the International Gateway, which already had a smaller crowd than the front of the park because the only Disney transportation option here is the Skyliner. The Skyliner station had a huge crowd, and I was really glad that we weren’t going to have to wait in that line. Once you pass the Skyliner station, the only people around are the guests that were walking to the Yacht & Beach Club Resorts. And that is exactly where we were heading! We scheduled our Lyft pick up at the Beach Club Resort, which allowed us to reduce our wait time, avoid the crowds, and get a glimpse of another resort. It was a success all the way around!

Our Lyft cost $15.74 before tip. We were picked up at 9:46pm and dropped off at Caribbean Beach Resort at 9:54pm.

Check out my EPCOT vlog HERE!

Conclusion:

This felt like our longest and most exhausting day in the parks, but of course it was still amazing! EPCOT was jam packed with so much that I didn’t expect and it was just a full day of go-go-go! Looking back at the timestamps of the day and remembering how tired I was, I am surprised that we were back in our hotel room by 10:00pm. While I don’t regret any part of our trip, I don’t think I will ever do 5 back-to-back park days again, haha!

The EPCOT vlog is the longest vlog so far in my vlog series, and so make sure that you check it out on YouTube if you haven’t seen it yet! And check back next weekend for the final vlog and blog post for this series.

Thanks for reading!

With Love,

Sami

Next
Next

What To Wear for Family Photos | Summer Look Book