Good morning from EPCOT! After yesterday’s initial steps toward returning to a maskless Walt Disney World, it’s time to check on the second oldest park. EPCOT is the home to walking and eating, an activity which is allowed once more.

In addition to the face covering changes, physical distancing mandates were also recently reduced. As part of that, spacing in parking lots seems to have ended this weekend.

Upon entering the park, we noticed a sword had made its way into the new entrance fountain.

At Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, there’s a disappointingly small amount of progress to see since our last update. Sadly, nothing of note has occurred in nearly two weeks.

The refurbishment of the former Innoventions East building has been moving much quicker, though. However, the end game here is a store, not a sorely-needed attraction.

EPCOT does currently have a nice selection of festival booths, and guests lined up to ‘rope drop’ Sunshine Griddle. Considering our glowing review, we can’t fault them for lining up early.

Near the Imagination Pavilion, Joy showed off some of her unique skills, such as land canoeing and walking up a hill.

The Imagination Pavilion itself looks lovely, and the flowers always improve the view.

It has been—shockingly—a fairly dry spring in Orlando so far. That means the flowers need lots of manual watering, and Cast Members are always there to provide.

The dozens of topiaries around the park all need a lot of care, especially this large display at the gateway to World Showcase.

Hitting the main walkway of World Showcase, guests have opted to stash away their masks for the journey around the lagoon.

Physical distancing is always a challenge, but was adhered to for the most part.

Some guests swear by starting at the Mexico Pavilion, and that’s the route we chose today. On Gran Fiesta Tour, we weren’t treated to the return of any animatronics, though.

The exit has been slightly reconfigured, however, now routing out towards the front of the pavilion instead of utilizing a side door.

On the lagoon, the Harmonious barges sit with their arms out. One in particular has been covered in a screen material, what we expect will be the look for all of them eventually.

In Morocco, the Tangerine Café marquee remains covered. The more hidden signs for the restaurant are still visible underneath an overhang.

Some of the safety signage around World Showcase has been updated this weekend. The updated signs remove mention of 6 feet of physical distancing, leaving it a bit more ambiguous.

However, all of the physical distancing markers in the park are still set at 6 feet. Policy changes and operational changes are two very different things.

The last stop of today’s visit, we found that the sword from this morning had been removed from the fountain. We presume this means that EPCOT now has a new king or queen, but they have yet to show themselves.

Thank you for following along with our updates from EPCOT today. For the latest Disney news from inside and outside of the parks, be sure to follow WDWNT on Twitter.

Kevin Lake