If you love to look at beautiful flowers, stroll through lovely gardens, eat yummy food, and are ready to travel, I’ve got the place for you!! It’s EPCOT, and we’ve put together a guide to all of the best activities at the 2021 International Flower and Garden Festival!
This festival is such a fun activity for Spring and the good news is…it’s been extended until July 5th, so you still have time to come to Florida and enjoy it! There are so many extra things to do and see, we decided to put together a guide for you!!
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Harrison and Donna at the entrance of EPCOT, in front of the Sorcerer Mickey topiary!
The details
The festival started on March 3 and will go till July 5, 2021.
Don’t forget you need a ticket and a park pass reservation to attend. Check the Disney website for the price of tickets. Remember to make sure tickets and reservations are both available for the day you want to go!
If you are concerned about Covid, make sure you understand the Disney World Policy for mask-wearing and social distancing because things are changing here in Florida very quickly now!
Be sure to pick up a festival passport at any retail location. It has all the details about the festival, and it’s free!!
What to do at the festival
EPCOT is a wonderful park all on its own, but when you add a festival to the mix, it really takes it up a notch! There are so many extra activities to do and see, and we don’t want you to miss anything!! So, we hope you enjoy this sneak peek and our guide to the 2021 EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival!
View Topiaries
My favorite part of the festival is looking for the topiaries!
They are stunning and are spread out all around EPCOT. Most of the topiaries depict Disney characters or adorable animals! These pandas are a great example!
Here is a list of topiaries you can look for: Sorcerer Mickey, Woody, Bo-Peep and her sheep, Pluto Donald Duck, Buzz Light Year, Figment, the Three Caballeros, Elsa and Anna, dragon, pandas, Snow-white and Dopey, Lady and the Tramp, Remi, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Tinker Bell, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, and Captain Hook.
View Gardens
There are 18 garden destinations for your viewing pleasure, one more beautiful than the next. Some of the gardens are large, and others small, but they are all very interesting to look at!
I’ve listed the gardens by location:
- Future World East – Prehistoric Plants, Outdoor Escapes
- Future World West – The Goodness Garden Butterfly House, Bold Bromeliads, Health Full Trail
- Showcase Plaza – Festival Blooms, Floating Gardens, The Honey Bee-stro Garden
- Mexico – Tropical Rainforest Garden
- China – Bamboo Garden, Chinese Zodiac Topiary Garden
- Germany – Alpine Miniature Garden
- Italy – Garden Italiano
- Japan – Kokedama Garden, Bonsai Collection
- Morocco – Urban Spice Garden
- United Kingdom – English Tea Garden, Shakespeare Garden
Floating gardens!
Flowers are so bright and beautiful!
The butterfly garden was very interesting!
So many butterflies in a small area! This was a very educational display as well!
The collection of bonsai trees was amazing! I could not believe how old some of them were!
Outdoor kitchens
There are over 20 outdoor kitchen booths that serve amazing food! You won’t believe how many wonderful choices there are! It’s so hard to narrow it down to just a few! Pick up a free festival passport which includes every booth menu to help you decide what to try! It’s so fun to try new foods! Here are a couple of Rich and Harrison’s favorites!
Frushi – Strawberry, pineapple, and cantaloupe wrapped in sweet rice and pink soy wrap. Served with whipped cream, drizzled berry sauce, and toasted coconut from Hanami in Japan.
House made crab and cheese wontons from Lotus House in China!
Garden Graze Food Stroll
A great way to try new foods is to participate in the Garden Graze Food Stroll. We were not able to do it today, but hopefully will on our next visit! You simply stroll around EPCOT and taste five plant-based food items. Pick up a sticker for each item you eat and put it in your festival passport. If you get all five stickers you are eligible for a special prize at Pineapple Promenade!! The prize is Mango Limeade Dole Whip. This flavor is only available to people who complete the stroll! You can collect the stickers over multiple days.
Scavenger Hunt
Spike’s Pollen-Nation Exploration – This is a scavenger hunt you can do with the whole family. It makes the walk around World Showcase really fun for kids, as they have to search for Spike the bee. This activity is not free. You have to purchase a map for the scavenger hunt for $7.99 at a retail location. When you locate Spike, you place a coordinating flower sticker to the location he was found.
Once you have placed all the stickers on your map, you turn it into a retail location and get a prize. You can choose one plate from a set of four.
Live Performances
When your feet get tired of walking to see all the beautiful flowers and gardens, you can take a rest and listen to some fabulous entertainment! Here’s a list of what’s available:
- Jammin’ Gardeners-Canada pavilion – these drummers will get you clapping while they perform with gardening tools!
- Voices of Liberty-American Gardens Theater – a wonderful group of singers that perform a variety of favorite Disney and patriotic songs!
- Mariachi Cobre-American Gardens Theatre – an exciting Mariachi band that plays Mexican folklore music.
- Bands – America Gardens Theater – watch bands from Orlando perform songs of yesterday and today.
- EPCOT Pianist-World Showplace – piano soloist
Wave at Characters
Character meet and greets, with a picture and autograph, are not possible with Covid restrictions. However, you can spot a few characters and wave at them!
We were lucky to see Mary Poppins at the United Kingdom Pavilion!
Tips of the trade
In place of the usual garden and food demonstrations, you can see an interesting display called Tips of the Trade. The display will show you how topiaries are made and other tricks of the festival! It’s located at World Showplace.
Well, there you have it!! There’s so much more to do than get on amazing rides like Soarin’ and Test Track! Although you should make time for those two rides if you can!! Then use our guide for the best tips for the 2021 EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival!!
If you love Disney as much as we do, you can look forward to many more posts like this one in the future! If you’d like to see a post about Mickey’s Not Too Scary Halloween Party 2019, click here! Note that this October 2021, Disney will be putting on a scaled-down version of the party called “Disney After Hours Boo Bash.”
Blessings, Donn and Rich
**Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. We appreciate your support. (disclosure policy)
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