How BAD are the crowds on the opening day of an EPCOT Festival? Well…we’re about to find out.

The 2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival started on March 1st and will run through July 5th. The Festival began on a Wednesday, which could make the crowds a bit better than a Festival that may start on a Friday (when more guests may have already arrived for their weekend trips). But that doesn’t mean EPCOT won’t get busy. So join us now for an honest look at the crowds so you know what to expect.

We started our morning bright and early at EPCOT to see what the Festival had to offer! Right at the entrance, there were quite a few guests already lined up, waiting to get in — a strong start to the crowd count for the day.

We’re HERE and ready to rope drop EPCOT’s Flower & Garden Festival! ??? Follow along with us today! pic.twitter.com/rhNED6dnet

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) March 1, 2023

 

 

 

But inside EPCOT, the crowds felt fairly light, at least as of 10AM ET. Note that on March 1st, EPCOT opened at 9AM ET to all guests, but at 8:30AM to Disney World hotel guests with the Early Theme Park Entry perk. While that 30 minutes into the park won’t necessarily help you get a head start on the food booths (many of these don’t open until World Showcase opens, around 11AM), it CAN help you get early access to some great photo opportunities in the park and (perhaps more importantly) the merchandise.

For example, on the Festival’s opening day, a popular Loungefly Bag of Orange Bird had essentially sold out early in the morning at Creations Shop (likely due to the resort guests’ ability to get their shopping done early!). But we did see them available for a little bit at The Odyssey. They quickly were selling out there too!

We spotted quite a few guests in what appeared to be convention or event-related pink shirts. Remember that other events taking place in different spots within Disney World can impact crowd levels at the parks too!

But overall, things were shockingly…empty-ish(?) for the start of a Festival!

Again, we were at EPCOT well before the Festival food booths (the main stars of the show) opened. We expect crowds could get MUCH worse as the day goes on, so here’s our pro tip for conquering some of the crowds: GO EARLY! Getting in early and taking advantage of that Early Theme Park Entry time (if you qualify) could be key to helping you enjoy some of EPCOT with lower crowds. While Early Theme Park Entry or even just rope-dropping the Park won’t get you access to everything, you could walk around the open areas, see the Festival topiaries that you have access to, and potentially even grab some Festival merchandise with lower crowds.

UPDATE: As we went along, we found some seriously HUGE crowds at the Brunchcot booth near Test Track.

We’ll continue to keep an eye on those crowd levels throughout the day and update this post as we go along.

Want to make sure you’ve got the perfect look for the Flower & Garden Festival? Pick up our DFB-exclusive Flower & Garden Festival shirt right now!

You can grab the shirt in a regular or v-neck design, pick up a sweatshirt or long-sleeve tee with the same design, and/or grab our DFB Flower & Garden Festival Guide to make sure you’ve got EVERYTHING you need! See full details about our Festival Guide below!

Will you be visiting the Flower & Garden Festival? Let us know in the comments!