Guten tag from EPCOT! It’s a bit of a wacky day at Walt Disney World’s second park — the crowd levels of Labor Day weekend, mixed with some not-so-nice weather compliments of Tropical Storm Sally moving through South Florida. At the same time, A Taste of the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival continues on, making for an interesting Saturday.
When we walked into the park, it was dry and relatively sunny out. By the time we made it over to Mouse Gear, things had changed quite quickly, foreshadowing what the rest of the day would be like from a weather standpoint.
As soon as things cleared up, we figured it would be as good a time as any to check on the construction projects around the park. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind has had the last of the solar panel backings installed, hopefully meaning that the solar panels themselves will make it atop the roof soon.
Similarly, the Play! Pavilion has seen steady progress on the replacement of its roof panels. Understandably, no work was being performed today on either structure.
Mission: SPACE Cargo Bay is now home to a growing selection of Baby Yoda (“The Child”) merchandise. If Mouse Gear doesn’t have what you’re looking for, give this shop a try for a less-ravaged selection.
Test Track was experiencing downtime due to the poor weather, as it would throughout the day on account of its section of outdoor track.
We’re still awaiting the 2020 Food & Wine debut of The Donut Box and Flavors from Fire.
On our way to check out the status of the Innoventions Plaza demolition, we noticed that the World Discovery restrooms have now opened after a lengthy refurbishment. Click here to take a look at our post showing the updated facilities.
Innoventions West has remained in a fairly stoic state ever since the park closures back in March.
The Innoventions East building, however, has seen more changes. Today, we noticed the removal of the rotating Mickey Mouse wand from the former Mouse Gear location.
Over in The Land Pavilion, long lines were starting to form for Soarin’ and Living with the Land.
At Eats at the EPCOT Experience, you’ll find two of the few signs of Halloween in the park — a returning Mickey Mouse Halloween popcorn bucket, and an also-recycled green cauldron bucket.
Yes, it’s time to head into the heart of the Taste of EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival!
Moving into World Showcase, the weather was once again looking a bit ominous. Off and on rain, combined with some strong winds, were present throughout the day.
We decided to hit the Skyliner and take a look at the France Pavilion expansion project before the rain moved in. Work continues on La Creperie de Paris since the installation of its sign last week, and further details are being added to the base of Remy’s fountain in the courtyard.
Inside the original portion of the France Pavilion, a sweet supply of the hard to find macaron ear headbands has appeared.
At the festival booth between the Morocco and Japan pavilions, we stumbled upon this new festival tank top featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The tank sells for $36.99, and is also available at World Showplace.
Also available at World Showplace is live entertainment in the form of pianists performing at different times throughout the day.
From the Japan Pavilion, yet again clouds were quickly approaching, a common occurrence today.
At The American Adventure Pavilion, we were starting to see some of those crazy Labor Day weekend-like lines. This one for Hops & Barley bested what we saw last weekend.
The Germany Pavilion also had some significant lines for their beer and pretzel carts, again a bit longer than what was observed last weekend.
Speaking of pretzels, there was a colorful German flag style ornament within one of the shops of the pavilion. Check out our post on the tasty tree accessory for more details!
That ornament wouldn’t be the big find at the back portion of World Showcase, though, as these Taste of EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival ear headbands would be the star of the show.
Further along the shores of World Showcase Lagoon, a massive line formed for the Alps Booth. We suspect they were there for the Warm Raclette Swiss Cheese with Alpine Ham that we recently reviewed when the booth reopened.
While it’s no surprise that Frozen Ever After had a sizable queue, the line stretching all the way to the China Pavilion is something that has only happened during Labor Day weekend since the park reopened.
It would have been fitting to run into Anna in the Norway Pavilion, but we seem to always catch her in Mexico.
Back in Future World, soon to be World Discovery, Test Track reopened during a break in the storms, but had a long line all the way back to those restrooms we mentioned earlier.
Stopping into Mouse Gear one last time, a new item appeared on the shelf — this Minnie Mouse Ear Carrier by Loungefly. While the carrier initially appeared at World of Disney at Disney Springs earlier in the day, a small supply (and by small we mean two) showed up at EPCOT.
As is required for any visit to EPCOT, here are the obligatory Lucite pylon pictures.
Finally, some refresh work on the overhang to the touchpoints has been progressing nicely. Visually, this has mostly been coating the structure in white paint, but new signage above each entry point should follow shortly.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our international journey around EPCOT! For up-to-the-minute news from Disney parks around the world, click here and follow @WDWNT on Twitter.