Our 1-day EPCOT itinerary has the best order to do everything, including the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind roller coaster and Frozen Ever After boat ride. This Walt Disney World plan has step-by-step strategy to avoid waiting in long lines, beating crowds, eating and enjoying World Showcase. (Updated August 3, 2025.)
This one-day EPCOT plan is tested regularly and has been updated for Fall 2025, taking into account changes for Early Entry and Extended Evening Hours. The plan has been overhauled following the completion of World Celebration and CommuniCore Hall, as well as the debut of Test Track 3.0.
It also reflects the switch to standby for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. We’ve done extensive field testing to determine the Best & Worst Times to Ride Guardians of Galaxy Cosmic Rewind, and some of the results might surprise you. Although we haven’t done similarly rigorous field testing for Test Track 3.0 yet, what we’ve seen thus far mirrors that pretty closely. Meaning if you want a DIY itinerary, you should just read that and do the two nearby attractions back-to-back.
Then there’s Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass, the latest paid FastPass that replaces the Genie+ system. Previously, we had separate plans with and without Lightning Lanes. With the new system, we’re instead recommending you start with this itinerary as the ‘bones’ to build your own plan, and combine it with EPCOT Lightning Lane Multi-Pass Rankings & Strategy. So long as you book Lightning Lanes early, you should be able to slot those ride reservations into this plan–either substituting standby for Lightning Lanes, repeating rides, or reducing backtracking.
Honestly, that ‘when to ride’ Cosmic Rewind guide and EPCOT Lightning Lanes strategy might be better suited to Walt Disney World vacation planners who want to build their own itinerary for EPCOT. That’s doubly true if you’re staying on-site and intend upon taking advantage of Early Entry. There is no one right way to beat the crowds at EPCOT, and which approaches work best depend upon your priorities, amount of walking you’re willing to do, which entrance you’re using, and more.
With all of that in mind, let’s cover our optimal 1-day EPCOT itinerary that balances all of these variables…
Early Entry at EPCOT – Walt Disney World is now offering Early Theme Park Entry, which allows on-site hotel guests to enter EPCOT (or any park) 30 minutes before official park opening time. Early Entry is offered at all 4 theme parks every single day of the week. This complicates strategy, especially for off-site guests. Check out our Guide to Early Theme Park Entry at Walt Disney World for more info.
If you can take advantage of this early admission and will be entering via International Gateway, we’d strongly recommend reading our Early Theme Park Entry at EPCOT Strategy for how to tackle the park’s headliners via standby, and why this on-site perk is better than Lightning Lanes at EPCOT. This advice applies even now that Cosmic Rewind is part of the the Early Entry ride roster.
If you’re arriving via the front entrance of EPCOT, you should start with Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. The only real question is whether you want to be at the very front of the pack and attempt to ride twice, or want to take advantage of our Easy EPCOT Early Entry Plan for Low Waits at Guardians of Galaxy Cosmic Rewind.
The following strategy is for official park opening and the remainder of the day, meaning that it assumes you are not doing Early Entry. Modify as appropriate if you are eligible for, and taking advantage of, Early Entry…
Navigate to Norway – In the past, we would not have recommended prioritizing World Showcase, which is mostly shopping, dining, and wandering. However, there are several compelling reasons for doing so right now.
For starters, World Showcase is home to two of EPCOT’s most popular attractions. There’s also the fact that most guests arrive through the front entrance and do EPCOT from front to back, meaning they do World Showcase in the afternoon. Zig when others zag, and work from back to front, which puts you on the opposite track of crowds. It’s like leaving the city during morning rush hour instead of joining the rat race into town.
This is why we start our day by heading to Frozen Ever After in World Showcase’s Norway/Arendelle pavilion. This is “only” the 3rd or 4th most popular ride at EPCOT right now, but it’s the one that is lower priority during Early Entry. As a result, the line is far shorter here at regular rope drop than it is at Cosmic Rewind, Test Track, or Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
By the time you get back to Norway, there’s a good chance that Frozen Ever After will have a posted wait time of 30 minutes or longer. So long as you arrive right at EPCOT’s opening time, you should do it anyway. Wait times for Frozen Ever After only worsen as the day wears on, as most guests do World Showcase in the second half of the day.
Cross to Canada – Beatles vs. Stones. Coke vs. Pepsi. Orange vs. Lime. Canada vs. Mexico.
Walt Disney World fans have long debated which direction is the “correct” way to start a trek around World Showcase. We’re here to inform you that the best approach is actually both. After finishing up in Norway, double back and head to Canada, continuing around World Showcase in that direction. You’ll understand why when you see the next stop…
Scurry to the Streets of Paris – The other most popular World Showcase attraction is Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, which is also one of the newer family-friendly attractions at Walt Disney World. Due to this, about one-third of guests race to the Rat Ride during Early Entry and at rope drop.
Consequently, we’ve observed an interesting phenomenon with a relative lull in wait times about an hour after park opening until around noon. This gap is basically between when the early arrivers have already finished up with the attraction but before the guests who prioritized the front of the park arrive to World Showcase. It’s still early, so this trend could change, but it intuitively makes sense and our expectation is that it’ll continue.
As such, your aim should be to arrive at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure before lunch. It may not seem like much, but knocking out these two headliners before mealtime is huge, and will set you up for an efficient afternoon. This is also a great use of a Lightning Lane, so if you do purchase Multi-Pass, try to book Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, ideally also with a time slot before noon.
The World Showcase is Your Oyster – Routinely viewed as the culinary epicenter of Walt Disney World, there are a number of unique restaurants in World Showcase. We think the cuisine at many of these is overrated, but it’s still worth being a bit adventurous and eating somewhere unique.
If you want something more approachable, one of the best counter service restaurants in EPCOT is Regal Eagle Smokehouse. It has a variety of crowd-pleasing BBQ, plus salad and even plant-based options. (We’ve eaten everything on the menu–read our Regal Eagle Smokehouse: A Review of All Foods, But Mostly BBQ Meats for thoughts on what to order.)
Alternatively, you could just graze around World Showcase, stopping at snack spots, quick-service kiosks, and festival marketplace booths as opposed to doing a traditional meal. All of these options are discussed in the steps below and, frankly, our top advice would be not stopping for a fully-fledged lunch. EPCOT is a big park with a lot to do, so eating lunch on the go makes sense.
American Adventure – Right next door to Regal Eagle Smokehouse is Epcot’s best attraction. American Adventure is a powerful Audio Animatronics show montage stage featuring key moments in American history.
American Adventure is so good that it made our list of the Top 10 Disney Theme Park Attractions. Skipping it would be distinctly unpatriotic.
_______ Around the World – The distance around World Showcase is roughly 1.25 miles. If you follow this plan, that means you’ll be walking at least 2.5 miles (you’re likely to walk over 10 miles in a day at Walt Disney World, so this is nothing), as this is going to call for 2 laps around World Showcase. It’s worth it.
During this first lap, we suggest trying Drinking Around the World or Snacking Around the World. Or try both for a different form of the “Dopey Challenge.” We recommend a snack or drink at every stop for the balanced approach, but hats off if you can do more. Along the way, consider breaks for Reflections of China and Canada Far & Wide.
Around the World Pit Stops – If it’s ‘Festival Season’ at EPCOT (which basically encompasses the entire year save for a few weeks), you should stop to enjoy either the food & drink booths or special offerings during these events.
Here are the various events along with their approximate annual timeframes:
World Showcase Atmospheric Acts – It should be obvious from the above entries, but we cannot overemphasize the importance of slowing down and taking your time to enjoy World Showcase. There should be no sense of urgency for the middle portion of the day. Lines for attractions at the front of the park are at their longest, making this a great time to kill time–explore the nooks and crannies, engage with the architecture, browse shops, and–as discussed above–eat!
Most importantly, take some time to stop and see the atmospheric entertainment acts. Among other performers, this includes Voices of Liberty (American Adventure), Matsuriza Taiko Drummers (Japan), Command Performance (United Kingdom), Les Raftsmen (Canada), Sergio the Italian Clown Juggler, and more. Note that performers can (and do!) change seasonally, as do showtimes. For schedules, we highly recommend consulting the My Disney Experience app on the day of your visit.
Maneuver to Mexico – Around mid-afternoon, you should notice crowds starting to build in World Showcase. Now is the time to double back towards the front of the park. On your way out, make a stop inside the Mexico pavilion to do the Gran Fiesta Tour boat ride.
If you’re planning on enjoying a drink or few, now is also a good time to stop at La Cava del Tequila or Choza de Margarita for a drink. Both locations might already have lines, but those will only be worse later.
Back to the Future World – Once you’ve “finished” World Showcase, bounce back to the front of the park, formerly known as Future World. This is the counter-intuitive approach. Most guests do EPCOT from front to back, meaning the wait times for attractions at the front of the park are longest at the beginning of the day and decreasing in the afternoon.
Order of attractions doesn’t make a huge difference in Future World (with a couple of big exceptions), but our recommended approach is:
- Journey into Imagination with Figment
- Meet Figment
- Meet Minnie & Mickey Mouse
- Spaceship Earth
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends (make sure to check out the aquatic life, especially the majestic manatees)
- Moana’s Journey of Water
- Living with the Land
- Soarin’ Around the World
- Mission: Space
- Test Track
The first important thing is to make sure Soarin’ Around the World and Test Track are towards the end. Those are the two attractions that will have the longest lines earlier in the day. By early evening, both lines should be much shorter than they were in the morning.
Another thing to note is that some of these are not must-dos for everyone. Although that list is 10 entries long (far more rides than you’ve done all day long up to this point!) and might seem daunting this late in the day, the reality is that most guests will only do 5-7 entries. Not only that, but because most of these are non-essential, the wait times tend to be shorter.
The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Journey into Imagination, and Living with the Land all tend to be walk-ons at this time, while Spaceship Earth and Mission Space will normally have wait times of 10 minutes or less. Moana’s Journey of Water is literally just a walking path, so there’s no wait for that.
With the exception of Soarin’ and Test Track, you should fly through this list. And if you do plan on doing more of the entries, feel like you’re short on time, or its posted wait time is prohibitive, keep in mind that Test Track has a Single Rider line. That will result in a much shorter wait, you just won’t ride together with your party.
Culminating at Cosmic Rewind – Unless you’re eligible for Early Entry, there’s a very good chance that the longest standby line you’ll wait in all day at EPCOT is for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. If you skipped the ‘best & worst times’ ride guide, there are basically two optimal options in the second half of the day.
The first of these is in a pre-dinner lull, which is similar to the mid-morning lull when we recommended doing Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure earlier. The rationale is similar–the posted wait time will still be high, and most guests aren’t going to want to wait in an hour-plus line right before their dinner plans. But in reality, the actual wait time is falling.
The second is ~30 minutes until park closing, which is the sweet spot for the shortest wait time of regular operating hours (so minus Early Entry or Extended Evening Hours). The problem with this is that it’ll mean you miss the EPCOT fireworks. If that doesn’t bother you, do Cosmic Rewind later. We recommend the pre-dinner lull here because you should not skip the fireworks, and also because getting out of the heat and sun during the pre-dinner lull is nice, even if the line is slightly longer. As always, your mileage may vary–that’s why we’re giving you options!
Dinner – After returning from the red planet in Mission: Space, head above Earth for dinner at EPCOT’s newest restaurant. See our Photos & Video Inside Space 220 Restaurant as well as our Space 220 Restaurant Review that looks at whether the food is worth the price tag.
In an ideal scenario, you’d book an Advance Dining Reservation in World Showcase about 2 hours before the fireworks, with dinner wrapping up shortly before that starts. If orbiting above Earth isn’t your speed, there are great options in World Showcase.
Spice Road Table is our top pick in World Showcase right now for cuisine and open air atmosphere. If this sounds outside your comfort zone, we’d encourage you to try it despite that–there are some surprisingly approachable menu options. If Spice Road Table doesn’t sound appealing to you consider Via Napoli, which serves the best pizza in Walt Disney World.
Impressions de France – This is the attraction we experience most in EPCOT, and we view it as criminally underrated. The score is hauntingly beautiful, and the imagery as you swoop through different parts of France is stunning.
There are several EPCOT films, but this is the only one that we love. Unfortunately, Impressions de France is only shown the last 2 hours of the day, so you might not have time for both Impressions de France and the fireworks. The average guest should do Luminous as opposed to this show. As much as we love Impressions de France, it is a bit dated and doesn’t resonate with a lot of first-timers.
If for some reason the wait time was too high, you didn’t have a Lightning Lane, you don’t care about fireworks, or you just want to ride it again–this is also a great time to do Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Even if the posted wait time is over an hour, there’s a good chance the actual wait time is about half that. (Disney inflates wait times at the end of the night.)
Fireworks Finale – EPCOT has had three different nighttime spectaculars in the last few years, with the latest being the new Luminous: The Symphony of Us. We recommend staking out a spot about 30 minutes in advance.
For planning purposes, consult our Best EPCOT Fireworks Viewing Spots posts for a list of the best spots and other tips for viewing the nighttime spectaculars. You do not need a front-row spot for Luminous, and camping out for hours on the France bridge or other popular spots is complete overkill.
If you wait more than 45 minutes for Luminous, you’re doing it wrong. Most of the time, we grab our spots about 5-15 minutes in advance, and have a great view! You just need to know where to go, and not follow the crowd to the most overhyped locations.
EPCOT Post Show: World Showcase Stroll – Since the restaurants in World Showcase make dining reservations until park closing and it takes some guests over an hour after park closing to finish their meals, you have over an hour to linger and slowly make your way out of the park after the park closes. Take full advantage of this with a leisurely walk out of the park. Trust us, it’s worth it.
If you’re able to do even 75% of the things on our single-day EPCOT plan of attack, you are pretty much assured of having an excellent day in the park. If you do have two or more days to enjoy EPCOT, or want to experience other attractions besides those we’ve listed, make sure to check out our EPCOT Park & Attractions Guide, which rates and reviews all attractions.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What would you include in your ideal day in EPCOT? Any tips of your own to add, or things you’d recommend that this itinerary is missing? If you haven’t visited Walt Disney World, what do you plan on doing? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
