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