Good morning from EPCOT! While on our way into the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, we noticed that the new security screen area has opened! Let’s take a look.
Passing through the first car gates to enter the parking lot this morning we were met with new signs for Flower & Garden! Oh, the things we will try today!
Our first steps out of the parking lot, we could tell a different set up might be in place. We have been following the work being done on the new EPCOT security screening area and this looks like it could be big!
There are still large construction walls on the right side ushering you to the new screening area.
It’s in place and open! While the area beneath the monorail was repurposed for the first half of this project to bring us the first new screening area, a whole new structure was erected for this side of the park, letting guests who park on the east parking lot walk on over to be screened and ultimately head over to the turnstiles. With Spaceship Earth glowing in the back, this was a brisk entrance into EPCOT this morning.
  
The area is fully covered, featuring signage with the new EPCOT stylized font. The sides of the screening area are flanked by dark green security envelope fences, keeping guests who’ve been screened within the envelope and those that have yet to go through it, outside.
      
We counted 14 new screeners over 7 new bays, but only 1 was open this morning, we would assume as a test area. Crowds were not terrible this morning, so more and more could open throughout the day.
Signage was also in place just after security screening to welcome us this morning to EPCOT’s International Flower & Garden Festival! Stay tuned to WDWNT today with the opening of Flower & Garden as well as the opening of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Today is a big Disney day, hope you brought your coffee!
Does this mean monorail guests may not have double screening?
Guests arriving at EPCOT via monorail will not have to go through a screening at EPCOT. But they will be screened at TTC or the resort monorail station where they enter the system.
This is a great improvement. I just wish the structure was architecturally similar to the monorail station and ticket booths. Without the aluminum finish panels, it looks strangely out of place.
On closer examination of the photos, this may not be the final finish. I can see the plywood grain through the gray paint. Perhaps there is more to come. Fingers crossed