Review: EPCOT International Festival of the Arts 2019

This year's EPCOT International Festival of the Arts has wrapped up, did you get a chance to go? Teenage Son Agent P shares his thoughts about our first visit to this newer festival in his review below:

This year was my first time at the Festival of the Arts and with it being a newer festival it still became one of my favorites, with its fun foods, experiences, art, Figment, and time of year! 

Food Booths

One area where the food from the Festival of the Arts really shines is that everything seems and looks so artistic, gotta keep the Insta up! For example the stuff from the Deconstructed Dish booth looked amazing for being a quick snack, I only wish the portions were bigger! 

This drink was surprisingly great, they made it taste like a real Bomb Pop! There were some other standouts for me. I really liked 2 selections from the Mexico Pavilion.

The Sope looked beautiful in its little shell. Not only was it pretty it tasted great too!

These were generously sized delicious twists on the Mexican classic "flan". This is a little flan on top of a moist chocolate sponge cake. Together the taste was very good.

The paint your own white chocolate Figment puzzle (from "Painter's Palate" at The Odyssey Festival Center)  was super popular and practically everyone at the Odyssey was getting one! It was neat that they gave frosting paints. But if you noticed no one was really showing online what it looked liked finished with frosting on top. I think the problem was that the frosting was a little hard to work with. Still it was a fun idea and I have a hard time resisting anything Figment!

Merchandise

I liked this years merchandise although it used a bit too much "tie dye" for my taste. The hat was a nice blue color with the "tie dye" not as prominent while still having the mascot Figment on it! (Always a plus, you can not have too much Figment in my opinion!) The shirt was in the same style as the hat but I liked that it was not as loud. They also released a Spirit Jersey which was fully tie dyed out and had Figment over the heart.

Behind us is a poster with an example of the "tie dye" style found on most festival merchandise.

Things to Do

There is so much to do for it being a smaller festival! They have set up seminars and drawing lessons in the newly remodeled Odyssey building. While we were there we missed out on the seminars but we did take a drawing class.

When we arrived for our class they were just wrapping up a Figment drawing class! I was a little sad to have barely missed it. But I still wanted to do the class, we learned how to draw Tigger. It was surprisingly difficult. From our seats we couldn’t see the instructor's screen very well. I laughed at how the drawing came out at the end, but it was still a fun experience! 

The Odyssey building had a station where you could order custom screen printed shirts. We were impressed by the quality of the shirts. We were expecting it might be sort of like the ill-fated design a Tee by Hanes from Disney Springs. But the shirts appeared to be made with a ink gel which looked much better. The shirts were also nice and soft. The designs were pretty great as well, you could pick colors, mix and match designs. They even had some cool characters like Mickey, Donald, and Figment! 

There were a bunch of famous large sized artworks all over the park. There was also a Figment themed scavenger hunt. It really is a great festival and definitely is underrated. This will be a festival I will want to come to for years to come. It has so many little experiences that make it such a super fun thing to do at Walt Disney World!

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party 2018 at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom

"HalloWishes" Fireworks at Magic Kingdom

We attended Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party this year for Labor Day Week. It was our second time attending a Walt Disney World Halloween Party, having first gone in 2017 and now this year.  September is pretty early to start celebrating Halloween but as it coincides with the trip we like to take to celebrate Toddler Son's birthday it has become a fun addition to our visits.

Poison Apple "Magic Shot" photograph

We arrived at Magic Kingdom the afternoon of the party in time for lots of rain, in 2017 the rain came solidly in the middle of the party eating up most of the event. It pretty much rains everyday in September. Luckily for us the afternoon storm this year (right around 3:30 PM) would be the only rain for us and for 2018 we enjoyed a full Halloween party! Our party tickets were part of a "Fall into Magic" package we were enjoying and Dad neglected to bring the hard tickets to the gate thinking the tickets would be pre-loaded on our magic bands through My Disney Experience. Unfortunately that was not the case and we were directed to will call and then guest services to rectify the situation. It looked for a second like we would have to go all the way back to our room to get the hard tickets but luckily a supervisor was able to help the window agent locate our tickets in the system and issue us new hard tickets. We were then finally through the gate and on our way. Teenage Son & Dad were dressed as Figment & Dreamfinder while Toddler Son was an "It's A Small World" doll from Mexico, accompanied by Mom in a retro Small World T-shirt and with her hair in a braid with a folkloric flower.

For the Halloween Parties you are allowed to enter the park as early as 4:00 PM and the party starts at 7:00 PM. Typically you are routed behind the east side of Main Street USA from entering Town Square where they issue you your treat bags,  give out treats and take pictures. At the end of this gauntlet you are dumped into Central Plaza("The Hub") between Main Street USA & Tomorrowland. 

"Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular"

"HalloWishes" Fireworks

"Boo Too You" Parade

The Halloween Party officially starts at 7PM but they start letting you meet the special characters at approximately 6:30 and distributing Candy shortly after that at several locations throughout the park. For other special event entertainment they have a musical show at the Castle Stage, fireworks, and a parade. For 2017 the rain was bad enough that it delayed/cancelled some entertainment and we only saw the fireworks and a few glimpses of the parade but for 2018 we were able to see all three.

There are several special characters that appear at the party and are not common throughout the rest of the year. For us the must see character was Stitch dressed as Elvis. Prior to this year you could only see him on Halloween Night at the Polynesian Resort so we were very excited at the chance to see him.  We were in line by 5:45 PM and they brought in Stitch at 6:30 PM and we saw him right away. We then went off to have dinner and start Trick Or Treating. The lines for the characters can get pretty long so we ultimately did not see any more up close.

We caught Lotso Hugging Bear heading to his photo op

Several attractions were modified slightly for the party and we experienced 2 of them. We all rode Pirates of the Caribbean with live performers in the fort and on the ride. Mom & Teenage Son got to ride Space Mountain in the dark while Dad & Toddler Son rode the Peoplemover (also in the dark through the Space Mountain portion). We did not get a chance to ride the Teacups with special Halloween Party lighting.

We stumbled onto a spot on the bridge to Tomorrowland to see the Fireworks show.  The fireworks show has basic projections on the Castle and does not yet incorporate the remarkable projection mapping of the regular show. But it more than makes up for that with a great soundtrack and the use of the perimeter fireworks bursts reserved for holidays that are really spectacular. The night becomes day as large fireworks bursts surround the entire Magic Kingdom.

As the crowd dispersed somewhat after the fireworks we moved to a spot at the base of the Partners statue in the center of The Hub to view the Castle stage show. The Castle stage show is the "Hocus Pocus Villian Spelltacular" a Disney Villain's greatest hits show linked together by the Sanderson Sisters from the film "Hocus Pocus". The show is high energy, has great music and the performers are terrific. Dad was not really a fan of the movie "Hocus Pocus" but this show made him a convert and we have been enjoying  all of the related "Hocus Pocus" programming on the Freeform Cable Channel.

For the "Boo To You Halloween Parade" we made our way to Town Square and found a spot on the rope line between the Square and the Emporium across the street from City Hall. The parade was delightful, especially the gravediggers and the ballroom dancers from The Haunted Mansion.

Ride of the Headless Horseman

Haunted Mansion Gravediggers

Haunted Mansion Gravediggers

Haunted Mansion Ballroom Dancers

2018 was a vast improvement for us over 2017 in terms of experiencing the special entertainment, and we managed to meet a character this year. In 2017 we did more trick or treating than this year, there is more things to do at these parties than can be done in one visit. To experience it all would probably take at least attending 2 parties a year, you could easily spend an entire night meeting the characters and trick or treating and not do anything else. The party felt crowded, the lines for the candy moved but they were very long and the waits for most characters looked very long.  Overall we had a great time and hope we can go again and perhaps concentrate on the special characters.

Sketch: Spaceship Earth

After Toddler Son asked for a drawing of him at Cinderella Castle then Agent P our Teenage Son (and Figment Fanatic) requested a drawing of Spaceship Earth. In this drawing Agent P has manged to take a joyride in Dreamfinder's flying machine to chase after Figment.  Earlier this month we visited Epcot several times to enjoy the 2018 Food & Wine Festival. This drawing was done with pencil style crayons on Xerox paper. All it took was one little spark of imagination! This ended up being the second in a series, Sketch 1 in the series was showcased in the previous post "Sketch: Cinderella Castle".

Let’s go to EPCOT: a photo album

3/4ths of our family is California born, so we are really charmed by the novelty of EPCOT. For Dad his earliest exposure to EPCOT is probably the introductory sequence of the Disney Sunday Movie. Mom was a fan of the special episodes when sitcoms would visit Walt Disney World. 

Epcot: WELCOME

It seemed so far off to us and a place we weren’t super familiar with or very likely to go to. But in the 3 years we have been visiting Walt Disney World it has become one of our favorite things about the resort. Teenage Son loves all sorts of 1980’s stuff and Toddler Son loves “The Golf Ball” so there ends up being something for everyone at this park. 

Toddler Son loves the trams and has the toy version

Teenage Son is a Figment Fanatic, and Toddler Son is not far behind. On our last trip Teenage Son was pretty much “Figment” in his T-Shirt & hat.

Follow the footprints to find Figment at the end

The whole family enjoyed our time at Figment’s home : The Imagination Pavilion. Everyone enjoyed the Disney*Pixar film festival. This attraction gets some flak for being something you can do at home if you own the DVD's which we admittedly do. But we don't have a giant 3-D screen at home or any "4-D" effects like rumbling seats or water sprayed in our faces so it does offer something unique! 

Fun at Figment's Imagination Pavilion

Please remember to leave your 3-D glasses in the receptacles as you exit the theater

We had a fastpass for Spaceship Earth and then had lunch at the Garden Grill in The Land Pavilion. 

Spaceship Earth fun

After lunch we visited the remnants of Innoventions and enjoyed exploring the Colortopia exhibit followed by a ride on Mission: Space. We rode the green mission which was still a pretty thrilling trip in low earth orbit. The visual effects have been greatly improved and there is still a nice range of motion without the spinning of the orange mission. Toddler Son enjoyed his time in the after show playground. 

Future World East fun

In the afternoon we went to meet Caballero Donald, something we've wanted to do for a while. Donald gave Dad a hard time for his Mickey Backpack. 

Teenage Son, our very own Agent P decided to play a round of the "Agent P World Showcase Adventure" which took us to France and then back to Mexico.

We worked in a Friendship Boat cruise in there (EPCOT is so enormous it is exhausting traveling back and forth sometimes). We had managed to score a Frozen: Ever After fastpass so we went on that, we all love that ride.

The "Gran Fiesta Tour with the Three Caballeros" called to us next (Toddler Son calls this ride "Little Small World"). The whole family rode together once in the front row, then Mom & Teenage Son went to play another round of "Agent P's World Showcase Adventure" while Dad and Toddler Son rode "Little Small World" 2 more times. "Gran Fiesta Tour" is usually a walk on...which is great but a little surprising as there are not many rides at EPCOT.  We find this boat ride through "Mexico" in search of Donald Duck to be very charming.

France

United Kingdom

Floating Flowers of Future World

Our next stop was "Living with The Land" boat ride, sliding into one of the last boats before it closed for the night. 

Monorail outside of Land Pavilion on the way to The Seas

After that we closed out our day at "The Seas with Nemo". The Seas Pavilion always reminds Mom & Dad of that "Full House" episode where Uncle Jesse & Joey are doing a radio show in the tank.

real live giant sea turtle

The tank highlight for us was seeing the giant sea turtle (the real one not "Crush"! ha ha ha). And that was the end of another great day at EPCOT.