Best of Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival
We are in that wonderful section of the year where spring ends and summer begins. The flowers are bright and blooming, the weather is the perfect degree of heat, and magic is starting to warm up the parks once again. During this season, we have my favorite celebration! Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival. This is my first time attending after years of admiring the festival from afar. My family and I took the opportunity to taste every meal at every booth and sip every drink. We have spent hours waltzing through the stores and smiling at every flower garden. After watching, tasting, and witnessing what was most popular and what lived up to the height, I was able to create a best-of list. Here begins the best of Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival
Best Food
This is one of the hardest things to determine on our Best of Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival List. Epcot is a park for food lovers. It has some of the best meals, treats, and platters of all theme parks in the central Florida area. During the flower and garden festival, Epcot kicks up the flavor by three notches and excites our taste buds with fresh flavors.
I had to pick two for this list. First is the grilled warm water Lobster Tail. You can find this dish at the Florida Fresh booth of the festival. It is a delicious generous-sized lobster tail smothered in a key lime butter. Even better, it is only $11! Everyone was raving about this lobster tail. Before I even arrived at the booth, all I heard were whispers and shouts about how good the lobster was. This is one meal that is completely worth the hype and earns its spot as the best of all.
Along with the Lobster tail, the second best is the Honey Glazed Cauliflower at the Honey Bee Stro booth. This dish is colorful cauliflower on top of a honey-roasted carrot puree, wild rice pilaf, sunflower brittle, and honey grapes. This dish is a fantastic mix of flavors that is both sweet and salty at the same time. This was my favorite dish and a must-taste for anyone visiting the festival. It is a great way to enjoy tasty, earthy vegetables while at a theme park but still feeling fulfilled and entertained.
Best Show
Next on the Best of Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival are the shows. This specifically is the Garden Rocks concerts. This year Epcot hosts performances by bands such as Casting Crowns, Simple Plan, Sister Hazel, Plain White T’s, and so many more. After seeing what everyone had to say and witnessing it myself, I found that there were no bad shows. All of the performers were exceptionally good, talented, and full of high energy.
They were kind and interacted with the crowd and above everything they rocked! Obviously, the well-known bands are going to have better crowds and energy than the Disney-exclusive performances. So for the best, I’ll have to give it to the Plain White T’s playing their best hits from the early 2000’s that we are all familiar with. The Epcot Garden Rocks concert series brings such an exciting energy to the calm park of Epcot and performances like the Plain White Ts add to the spring/summer feel of the festival.
Best Ride
Then on the Best of Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival are the rides. Though the rides aren’t exclusive to the festival, I feel it is important to add them. After all, it is a theme park, and while you are not eating, you will be riding. I add this because most of us attending the flower and garden festival will be so busy trying new booths and watching shows, that we might not have time to wait on all of the rides. If we must pick one that we can fit in, it must be Cosmic Rewind.
Not only is Cosmic Rewind the best ride in the Flower and Garden Festival, but it is also the best ride in the entire Disney parks bubble. This brand new ride, themed with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, is a jam-packed 80s action adventure in space. It is so technologically advanced and sets new records for the Disney Imagineers. If you can only ride one during your time at the festival, ride Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. Do be aware, that in order to ride this ride, you are required to enter the virtual queue. Just like with Tron, and the Rise of The Resistance when it first opened, you must wake up early and reserve your spot in line on the My Disney Experience app. If you don’t make the 7 am spot, don’t worry, you can still reserve later in the afternoon for the 1 pm spot.
Best Merch
Next is the best merch! One thing you cannot leave Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival without is merch. It has been rumored that all the Disney merchandise is the same generic park souvenirs. I went to investigate this rumor but searched throughout the four parks. I found it unfortunately to be true. Each gift store in each park is full of Mickey and Friends plushies, spirit jerseys, and princess bubble blowers. The same items that have been sold for years and with minimal ride-specific merchandise. This was until visiting the flower and garden festival
The Epcot festivals are one of the only opportunities for Disney parks fans to get new merch to fill their closets and houses with. The main store, right under Spaceship Earth, is filled with orange bird spirit jerseys, flower and garden Mickey ears, exclusive pins, and so much more! This is what we want! This is what we came for! At the Flower and Garden Festival, you can spend on lovely merchandise that only you and those few who visited during the flower and garden festival can have. It makes it more special and exclusive.
Because of this, the best of the merch will have to be anything with the Flower and Garden festival orange bird. This cute little bird is the mascot for the famous Flower and Garden Festival and each year, new designs with its little face sprawl throughout the stores and all of it is well designed. The Mickey ears, cups, loungefly bags, wallets, sweaters, all of them! As long as it features the little orange bird, it is the best!
Find Out the Best for Yourself
Agree with my list? Disagree with my list? The best way to find out what is the best of Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival is to attend yourself. The festival is still running and will run until May 27, 2024! Though my votes are based on the most popular, most talked about, and the most beautiful, the entire park is a spectacle during this time of year, and it is something you must see and taste. Spend some time this summer and spring walking through the flowers, gazing at the intricate topiaries, and tasting all the great food. However, if you don’t have time to do it all or only have a specific budget, be sure to follow this list to find the best of the best to make the best of your day!
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