Earlier today we were on scene for the first day of this year’s Taste of EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival to check out the sights, sounds, merchandise, and food of this year’s festival. You can check out our replay of our live stream for earlier, and go further down to see the different gardens of the festival this year.
EPCOT Park Entrance
This year, the floral fun starts outside of the gates, featuring Hop Lo and the dancing mushrooms from Fantasia near the park’s entrance touchpoints. As you enter the park, you’ll find other characters from the numerous sequences from Fantasia, including the Ostriches, Alligators, and Hippos from Dance of the Hours, as well as Sorcerer Mickey and the Brooms from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Future World West
In this side of Future World, soon to become a neighborhood referred to as “World Nature,” we find many signature gardens of the festival, including the floating flowers, the floral mural near the Imagination Pavilion, and the ever popular butterfly garden. It should be noted though that unlike previous years, there is only one, one-way path in the butterfly garden this year with one designated exit and entrance.
Future World East
Directly behind the construction site at the rear of Spaceship Earth, you’ll find some familiar friends if you were to continue your journey into World Showcase. If you followed our path however, you’ll come across Outdoor Escapes, as well as some topiaries featuring Bambi and friends, as well as Buzz Lightyear.
Also over here, kept from the days of the Universe of Energy, you can find a Prehistoric garden featuring not-so-hidden appearances from some extinct friends.
World Showcase
Heading back towards World Showcase, as we enter the promenade we find topiaries featuring Donald, Daisy, and the nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, as well as more butterfly topiaries.
Canada/World Showplace/United Kingdom
As we begin our loop around the World Showcase promenade, we find ourselves encountering Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog before we head into the World Showplace pavilion which features smaller gardens as well as some exhibits as well as some special food offerings.
Back outside in the United Kingdom pavilion we find some of our favorite friends from Winnie the Pooh, as well as Captain Hook and Peter Pan, still dueling as they have been for years.
France/Japan/Italy
In the France Pavilion, you can see Remy beckoning towards the area where his new attraction, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, will be found as he stands atop some cheese. Elsewhere in the pavilion, you’ll find Belle and the Beast outside the theater where their sing-along film, as well as the classic Impressions De France, are shown.
The popular Bonsai gardens have returned to the Japan pavilion again, as well as the individual trees.
Over in Italy, we can find an abundance of potted plants in the central plaza area, as well as Lady and the Tramp near the docks and canals.
Germany/China/Norway/Mexico
In Germany, we can find Snow White and Dopey and some decorative elements in the miniature railroad. And speaking of Miniature, it's here where we can find some artistic miniature gardens.
Over in China, we can see the popular panda bear figures have made their return, as well as figures marking each animal in the lunar new year calendar.
Norway sees the return of the popular Troll figure, who is NOT sending us backwards over a waterfall, and those two popular sisters, Anna and Elsa near where the Royal Somerhaus.
Some dimensional topiaries of the Three Caballeros (Donald, Panchito, and Jose Carioca) appear outside the pavilion, which for the moment, are a better option than what can be seen at the finale of their attraction inside.
For an even better look at some of these gardens, be sure to check out the replay of our live stream from earlier today below!
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