Greetings from EPCOT during another busy weekend! It’s another interesting day in the park, filled with both expected and unexpected events alike. From the reopening of Spice Road Table in the Morocco Pavilion to filming within the France Pavilion Expansion, there’s a lot to see, so let’s take a look.
Upon entry into the park, the Lucite pylons still remain behind construction walls as part of the new entrance fountain. Their big reveal is expected soon, though.
Getting on with the expected event of the day, Spice Road Table reopened within the Morocco Pavilion as was expected based on previous information. As the restaurant was only closed for two days there weren’t many physical changes, though a new small plates menu was introduced for this transition.
Alongside the reopening of Spice Road Table came the reopening of the majority of the pavilion to guests. The majority of the area was closed off to guests as some changes were made since Thursday.
Moving on to some of our unexpected finds for the day, these new cat and dog sock sets were found over at International Gateway — a fun gift for any Disney cat or dog lover.
At Mouse Gear, a surprising piece of merchandise made its return — these youth “Together Again!” shirts. The shirts were introduced, as part of a limited run, during the reopening of the Walt Disney World parks back in July. The shirts have been sold out — or so everyone thought — since shortly after the reopenings.
As usual, we checked on the progress of the France Pavilion expansion which has had minor final details added over the past few weeks. Today, however, something far different was going on.
Instead of the small crews of craftsmen and construction workers which are normally on site, large camera (and catering) crews were on site filming the yet unopened area.
In the Italy Pavilion, little has changed since yesterday at the site of a new foodservice location which is being built from the ground up.
Moving back towards Future World, Liquid Layer has been blocked off by construction walls for nearly three months now, and during that time there has been excruciatingly little work done — at least visible work.
In The Seas Pavilion, a section of aquarium glass remains blocked off and covered as maintenance is performed.
Outside of the Imagination Pavilion, Joy is out in the field adjacent to Journey Into Imagination as usual. She would seem to be one of the most reliable elements of EPCOT as of late.
The few other entertainment options come in the form of cavalcades around World Showcase, such as the Santa cavalcade which includes these lovely ribbon dancers.
Not so lovely are the walls around the eventual entrance to Space 220 which have now been in place for nearly 11 months. As it doesn’t appear that landscaping work has been completed around the sign which we brought you a sneak peek of, it doesn’t seem like these walls will be removed in the near future.
Similarly, the Play! Pavilion has had disturbingly little work related to its exterior in the recent weeks.
On the other hand, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is making steady progress, at least in the guest-facing facets. Over by the left-hand corner closest to the walkway, a new section of scaffolding has gone up.
Both Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure can’t come a moment too soon, as lines at EPCOT continue to grow with the small variety of attractions that are currently available. The line for Frozen Ever After stretched to the bridge between the China Pavilion and Refreshment Outpost today.
That line equated to a 120 minute wait for the most popular attraction in the park.
Eventually, Journey of Water Inspired by Moana will draw some guests away from rides in EPCOT, but that attraction can’t even begin construction until Innoventions West finally meets its inevitable demise.
Innoventions East, on the other hand, has its continuing refurbishment ahead of it before the space can be used for more than a makeshift Mouse Gear location and Guest Relations.
Our last stop of the day, that temporary Mouse Gear location had a fairly long line of its own, forcing guests to wait outside due to capacity restrictions — both a result of COVID-19 as well as the location’s smaller size.
Thanks for joining us in EPCOT today as we checked out all of the latest updates from the park. For all of the latest stories and photos from Disney parks around the world, click here follow WDWNT on Instagram!