I love Flower and Garden Festival. EPCOT is full of beautiful flowers and topiaries. There’s new food to try. It has all of the elements of a great festival at Disney World. You will never hear me complain about walking around World Showcase while trying new food and shopping new merchandise!

The festival runs February 28 to May 27, 2024!

Asha, from the new Disney movie Wish, will greet you at the main entrance to the park for this festival.

Asha, from Wish, topiary made from succulents with spaceship earth behind her

Last year, the topiaries at the main entrance to EPCOT are all characters from Disney’s Encanto. This year the Madrigal family is at the entrance into World Show Case.

Encanto's Lousia, Mirabel and Antonio made of flowers in front of trees and Spaceship EarthEncanto's Lousia made of flowers in front of trees and Spaceship EarthEncanto's Isabella made of flowers in front of trees and Spaceship EarthEncanto's Mirabel and Antonio made of flowers in front of trees and Spaceship Earth

Other beautiful topiaries are sprinkled around the park and are a fun way to capture your kids and their time in EPCOT.

Donald and Daisy Duck made of flowers with building behind themBuzz Lightyear made of flowers with Mission Space attraction behind

New topiaries for 2024 feature Asha (at the front of the park), Groot (between Guardians of the Galaxy and Mission Space) and Dante and Miguel (from the movie Coco and they’re between the Odyssey Pavilion and Mexico)!

Tips for the Festival:

  1. Check out the menu before hand. Why? There is so much food offered in this festival and going without planning could be super overwhelming. Food booths are spread around the park so if you aren’t careful, you could eat your entire budget worth of food before you’ve seen all the food. This can also be helpful if you are trying to be mindful of a budget on your visit to EPCOT. Also, grab a festival passport at the entries so you can track the foods you have eaten and see which highlight foods will complete the passport for a freebie treat. They have some amazing vegetarian/vegan options this year, pictured below that I will go back for over and over.fork in brown food, with yellow and orange shredded vegetables, grilled green vegetable and white rice on white plate with lagoon and boat behindfive eggrolls in brown plate with fork and lagoon behindyellow ice cream in International Flower & Garden Festival cup in hand with lagoon behind
  2. Remember to keep your Festival Passport because you do not need to get all of your stamps that are a part of the “Garden Graze Menu” in one trip to the park. When you purchase 5 of the qualifying items, you will receive a Festival Treat (and a take-home cup).

    EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival 2024 passport with a bee and flowers around the words in front of flowers with spaceship earth behind
    2024 Festival Passport – available around the park and at the entrances.
  3. Along those lines, check out the merchandise before hand too. If you’re planning on buying something to remember your trip, check Disney’s website to look at merchandise ahead of time or there are tons of bloggers who cover the festivals that will showcase the newest merchandise. Also, keep in mind that the offerings can change, so if you see something you really want, plan a trip ASAP.
  4. Decide what rides you must ride during your trip to the park. Often times we spend on trip decided only to festival offerings with only a ride or two sprinkled in the day. My recommendation would be to grab your Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind virtual queue and just wing it from there if your goal is to see as much of the festival as you can. If your party has rides that are considered must dos at EPCOT, make a plan as to when you want to do them during your day.
  5. Check out the Butterfly Landing. Between The Land and Figment, you can walk through an amazing butterfly garden. You can see butterflies in all of their life stages and see them up close. This was fun for my almost 6 and 3 year old and they could have spent a significant amount of time in there.
  6. ENJOY yourself. Especially if you are a local and an annual Passholder, make sure to slow down, look around, soak in the experience and the environment and enjoy yourself. You don’t have to do every ride or see every booth to get the most out of Flower and Garden Festival.

Have you been to Flower and Garden Festival yet this year?

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Allison Thommen
Allison Thommen is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist turned stay at home mom to two little girls, Aurora and Aubree. She and her husband have been married since 2015 and had dreamed of living in Orlando since they were in college. They moved from Detroit to Clermont in the summer of 2022. They are Disney World annual passholders and are in the parks almost every week. They are also Disney Vacation Club members, their love for Disney runs deep… did you catch that their first daughter was named after Sleeping Beauty? As a family they also love outer space, so they are excited about being so close to the Space Coast. Allison’s favorite place in the whole world is the beach at the Polynesian Village Resort and could sit there for hours (with a Dole Whip in hand of course). In her free time, Allison loves to read, sew, watch reruns of The Big Bang Theory and binge watch new shows on Netflix! Allison moderates the Orlando Mom Book Club and the Village Facebook groups.

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