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Tag Archives: Epcot Flower & Garden Festival
EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival: Tips to Make the Most of Your Visit
It’s always important to have a game plan when it comes to visiting the parks. When I hit the parks I want to be prepared-not preoccupied! I want to enjoy the offerings, especially special events that I can’t see on just any old ordinary Disney day (I’m wondering what day at Disney is considered “plain old” or “ordinary”…hopefully you get what I’m trying to say here!)
This week kicks off one of my favorite “limited time” events, EPCOT’s International Flower and Garden Festival! EPCOT simply bursts to life as the unofficial start to spring is ushered in by magnificent topiaries, exhibits, speakers, food, merchandise, and musicians! There are literally petals, leaves, and blooms everywhere you look! It is truly a breathtaking sight!
Today, we are taking a look at what you need to ” know before you go” in order to make the most of your visit to the flower festival! Let’s get growing!
Capture it!
I can assure you that you will want to take pictures…and lots of them! There’s nothing worse than going to snap a picture only to realize that your camera isn’t charged! Make sure to check and charge your camera’s battery and memory card the night before you visit the festival. The topiaries and displays really are magnificent and they make for beautiful pictures! Don’t forget your camera or your smile!
2013 Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival
Every spring, Epcot hosts the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. Whether you have a green thumb or not, there is something for everyone to enjoy at this beautiful event. Many of your favorite characters can be found all throughout the park. You can usually find your favorite princesses at each of their home countries.
For instance, Belle and the Beast can be found in France while Snow White is at the Germany pavilion- all made out of plants and flowers. You might even find Lady and the Tramp sitting outside of the Italy pavilion. These life-size topiaries are just beautiful! There are surprises every year so there’s always something new for you to see!
2013 marks the 20th anniversary of this special event. The 2013 International Flower and Garden Festival will take place between March 6 and May 19. You will find over 100 topiaries, more than 200 floating mini-gardens, dozens of flower towers, numerous beds of multi-colored blossoms. Admission to the festival is included with your admission to Epcot at no additional cost.
There are several new features for 2013. The World Showcase will host Garden Marketplace Culinary Creations which include special menus at each pavilion inspired by that country’s cuisine. There will also be Garden Marketplace refreshing libations with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages available. There will also be a new “Land of Oz” play area for children which will be inspired by the upcoming movie “Oz: The Great and Powerful” which comes out March 8, 2013.
This area will have a circus theme and will feature games, tents, play systems, and plants all themed from the movie. This is a great place to let your kids do something special at no extra cost. Make sure you check out the larger than life topiaries of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto where the gang is “cooking out.” You can also see illuminated gardens every evening in both Future World and the World Showcase.
Don’t worry, though, your other favorites will be there, too. There will be other play areas throughout the park for children. These are great to let your children explore while you take a break.The Flower Power concert series featuring artists from the 1960’s and 1970’s will still be taking the stage on weekends. You can also learn some new gardening tips and techniques at daily seminars. Lastly, you can also see your favorite HGTV stars every weekend. The full line-up can be found here.
Is the flower and garden festival an event you attend every year? Which topiary is your favorite?
When Siera isn’t planning Disney vacations for her friends and family, you can find her spreading magic on Facebook or Twitter.
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Fun Facts from the 20th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
A dozen new food and beverage garden marketplaces, 30 million multi-hued blooms, 1,000 native butterflies and 100-plus whimsical topiaries add splendor and substance to the 20 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival March 6-May 19 at Walt Disney World Resort.
Among this year’s fun festival facts:
- 30 million blooms blanket the park throughout the festival, which runs 75 colorful days.
- One dozen brand-new garden marketplaces surround the World Showcase Lagoon offering festival taste treats ranging from shrimp and grits with fresh Florida veggies to barbecue and brew.Each marketplace will feature a produce and herb garden to represent the more than 50 marketplace beverage choices and more than 30 food items featured at the marketplaces.
- The festival’s front-entrance Party with Mickey &a Friends topiary scene comprises six topiaries – Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto and Goofy –and more than 100 varieties of flowers, plants, and other garden materials.
The Land of Oz Garden is the largest festival garden ever created for the festival at nearly one-third acre. The garden’s own “yellow brick road” is 160 feet long and includes 40 feet of “yellow brick” decal,40 feet of ForeverLawn yellow turf and an 80-foot-long floral path planted with 1,200 yellow viola plants, to be replaced by tropical duranta plants when the weather heats up later in April.Dozens of additional Disney character topiaries represent the largest collection of Disney character topiary in the world and include Disney and Pixar film and TV stars Mike and Sulley (new!) plus Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Cinderella, Belle and Beast, and Phineas and Ferb. At least 25 different plants, grasses and mosses of various colors, including pink and red begonias, dusty miller, palm fiber, palm seeds, ficus and lichen, are used to create and define features of additional festival topiaries.
- 1,000 native butterflies represent up to 10 species at the expansive Tinker Bell’s Butterfly House. Among the garden’s two dozen nectar plants are Cape Royal plumbago, passion flower, coral honeysuckle, blazing star, butterfly bush, scarlet milkweed and canna lily.
- More than 500,000 plants, trees and shrubs are planted for the festival;250,000 of those are annual blossoms installed for the festival.
- Festival plants include 60 different species of trees, 47 types of palms, and 48 varieties of bedding plants.
- 150 hands-on gardening demonstrations and seminars will be presented.
- 30 “flower towers” of of several varieties of blooms and plants line Innoventions Plaza.
- 225 floating mini-gardens, each three feet in diameter, of multi-hued impatiens provide splashes of color on two ponds that border the walkway between Future World and World Showcase.
- 700 container gardens of flowers, herbs, plants and vegetables in clay pots, barrels and urns enhance the landscape throughout Epcot.
- 400 Walt Disney World horticulturists are needed to install the festival landscape, topiaries and many exhibits; 100 Epcot horticulturists maintai topiaries and other festival displays.
- It takes more than one full year and about 24,000 cast member hours to prepare for the annual festival.
The festival’s weekend Flower Power concert series includes 11 artists and groups known for their Top 40 hits. This year’s musical hit-makers from the 1960s and ’70s include The Monkees Lead Singer Micky Dolenz, The Village People (new!), Tommy Roe (new!), Starship starring Mickey Thomas, The Guess Who, Chubby Checker & The Wildcats, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Nelson, The Turtles featuring Flo &; Eddie, The Orchestra starring former members of ELO, Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone
Guest information for the 20thannual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival is available at EpcotInSpring.com or at 407/W-DISNEY.
Sunshine is a Disney fanatic. You will finding her counting down the days until she goes back to Disney, while annoying her daughter with all things Disney.
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The Land of Oz Garden Magically Appears at Epcot
Although the 2013 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival officially opens Wednesday, March 6, one new garden has appeared a little early. The Land of Oz Garden is open now and at almost one third of an acre, it’s the largest garden ever created for the festival. The area is based on the new Disney film, “Oz The Great and Powerful,” which stars James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams and Zach Braff, and opens in theaters March 8.
Guests enter The Land of Oz Garden guided by a yellow-brick road and soon find themselves in an interactive children’s play area that features carnival-style games. From here, guests walk past a garden filled with a combination of lush, real flowers and fantastical art-glass poppies. As kids play in and around a giant custom Oz-themed play structure, parents can enjoy shaded, comfy chairs just a few steps away.
Epcot’s Flower & Garden Festival Celebrates 20 Years in Fun, New Ways
According to disdining.com, the new “Garden Marketplaces” for the EPCOT’s Flower & Garden Festival has everyone talking and I can see why. This year in addition to the beautiful topiaries and the new garden and play area celebrating The Land Of Oz there are going to be 11 Garden Marketplaces that highlight food appropriate for a Flower & Garden Show! Garden Marketplaces will serve foods that are not normally served at Epcot, as well as alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks in kiosks (similar to Food & Wine) and thanks to disdining.com we have the menus. Take a look and tell me where you would be headed first?
Jardin de Fiestas: Start your journey in the Mexico Pavilion. There you’ll find pork tacos, crab tostadas and guava flan. They’ll also be serving tequila flights, strawberry-infused Rosita margaritas and Mexican beer.
Lotus House: Located in the China Pavilion, here you’ll be able to dine on such delicacies as Spring Pancake with Grilled Chicken and Green Apple and Taro-Bacon Puff Pastry. Try the Beijing-Styled candied strawberries with a cup of Bubble Tea, or try a Fruit Beverage Cocktail.
