Hello from EPCOT on a stormy Sunday! The weather was a mixed bag today, and one of the big park attractions was down for the first few hours of the day, making for some interesting crowd flow. Regardless, we are bringing you the updates you came here to see, so let’s take a look at what’s going on in the park.
First things first, that big attraction that was down for a good chunk of the day was Test Track. While weather played a part later in the day, it’s early downtime was a “delayed opening”, which generally means technical issues.
Similarly out of commission is Project Tomorrow, the exit area for Spaceship Earth. With so much of it being touch-oriented, the exhibits have been shut down since the park’s reopening.
But hey, we’ve always got Mouse Gear, bringing us a handful of new merchandise in EPCOT. This fun youth tee is now available, and costs $19.99.
A few other new items to EPCOT are a colorful shirt and two pairs of leggings, the latter of which feature Mickey Mouse (a crop legging style) and Castle (which are 7/8 ankle length) patterns. The shirt will run you $36.99 while the leggings are $39.99 each.
Heading over to The Land Pavilion, we noticed a new development — the addition of a significant outdoor queue. Masking tape was used to to mark out spots for parties as they progressed through the line.
The queue continued inside the pavilion, where eventually you could stay in line for Soarin’, or break off to head to Garden Grill, Sunshine Seasons, or Living with the Land.
We popped into the nearby Imagination Pavilion, and while the jumping fountains we all know and love which launch over the walkways are not active, these smaller fountains are still functioning.
In lieu of some fountains, we have Winnie the Pooh chasing butterflies in the grass. Joy also rotates in throughout the day in this same location.
From the Imagination Pavilion, we also got a good look at where things stand with the demolition of Innoventions Plaza. Not a lot has happened recently, though slow progress seems to be occurring — mostly on the Innoventions East side.
Mere minutes later, as we walked by the 9th Wonder of the World, the backside of Spaceship Earth, storms were quickly moving in.
Sure enough, we barely made it to the Odyssey Pavilion, home to the EPCOT Experience and Eats at the EPCOT Experience, before the skies opened up and guests ran for shelter.
While a couple elements have been removed from the EPCOT Experience which reference ‘coming soon’ items which are no longer coming soon, it’s still a pretty neat display to watch occasionally — especially if it’s raining.
It didn’t take long for the storms to move along, and the Mexico Pavilion made for a good destination.
While the interior of the pavilion boats some nice details, the outside of the structure has some impressive elements as well.
At La Princesa de Cristal, a skilled artisan works to produce Arribas Brothers glass and crystal products. Equally, if not more, impressive as the details of the building itself.
It wouldn’t be long before more storms began to move in, motivating guests to once again find shelter.
While lines were a bit longer than normal at times, such as at The Land Pavilion, Test Track being down was a big contributor. Overall, there was less foot traffic than other weekend days, with the weather playing a factor.
We only caught one Character Cavalcade throughout the day, but the one we saw included the Big Cheese himself. Naturally, the cavalcades either do not run, or run in a very limited fashion, when poor weather is afoot.
After a bit more rain, the sun shone once again from the Japan Pavilion. Quite fitting as Japan is known as “The Land of the Rising Sun”.
If you do happen to be around the Japan Pavilion when rain hits, or even if the weather is beautiful, the Kawaii exhibit highlighting Japan’s “cute culture” is a great place to check out some unique items.
Over at the France Pavilion, things were relatively tame at Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie, where they now have a delicious set of special edition seasonal macarons.
At World Showplace, home to four festival marketplaces, we were treated to Carol “The Piano Lady” Stein performing on stage. She often has Sundays off, so this was a wonderful surprise.
In the mid-afternoon, Test Track finally opened, and to a pretty significant wait. It wasn’t long before they started announcing warnings about closing to due rain moving in, though.
While Spaceship Earth continues to operate perfectly well during storms, leaking from the structure continues to be an issue when the skies open up.
Finally, an entry into our continuing series tracking the cleaning of the monorail beams which run through EPCOT, we’re highlighting where the cleaning began on the outskirts of the park. Clearly, the track was due for a good scrubbing, as mold and mildew buildup over the years have created a bit of a mess.
Thanks for spending the time with us in EPCOT on this rainy Sunday. Do you have favorite go-to spots when the weather becomes a bit unfriendly? Share your favorite places to hide out in the Disney parks in the comments!