The 90-day 25th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival will open with an irresistible array of sights, sounds, tastes, aromas and tactile discoveries:

• New and creative dishes will debut at 15 Outdoor Kitchens encircling the World Showcase Promenade. Guests can sip and savor their way around Epcot, enjoying chef-inspired noshes and refreshing libations.
• A bonanza of Disney character topiaries, including classic-character favorites Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and many others, will play a starring festival role. Returning this year, Belle will be featured in France along with Beast, Snow White in Germany with the Seven Dwarfs, and Anna and Elsa in Norway.
• A brand-new Future World interactive play garden and a revved-up Road to Florida 500 garden featuring new games and play challenges will set the pace for family festival fun. The new interactive area in Future World will feature a play maze, a sensory garden, an activity zone and a covered seating area. The redesigned “Cars”-themed garden based on the Disney•Pixar sequel, “Cars 3,” will add more fun activities like highway bingo for families.
• A brand-new Epcot front-entrance topiary garden will set the milestone anniversary scene with a kaleidoscope of blooming color where topiary icons Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Goofy will greet festival guests.
• The popular Garden Rocks Concert Series will feature hit makers of the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s on the America Gardens Theatre stage. Three evening concerts each Friday through Monday present musicians that span multiple genres.
• Garden Rocks Dining Packages will be available on select days at a number of Epcot restaurants.
• Each Outdoor Kitchen will feature its own raised-bed or in-ground garden of herbs and produce that can inspire the growing numbers of guests who want to learn to grow what they eat.

“The culture of growing your own food continues to trend, and our guests each year have quite a few questions related to edible gardens,” says Eric Darden, festival horticulture manager. “They get a big kick comparing items in our gardens with the herbs and produce our chefs incorporate into the festival’s Outdoor Kitchen recipes.”

And there’s more:

• The back-by-demand Figment topiary garden between Future World and World Showcase will offer the perfect selfie backdrop and family photo opportunity.
• The Royal Tea Garden Tour will return for a second year each festival morning at the United Kingdom pavilion. For a small fee, guests can follow a knowledgeable guide through the tranquil tea garden setting to learn the history and artistry behind growing and blending tea. A post-tour treat of tea and scones is included. The shorter, complimentary English Tea Garden Tour also will be offered on select days.
• Among the nearly 100 festival topiaries will be returning favorites like the pandas and Bromeliad dragon at the China pavilion, The Three Caballeros at the Mexico pavilion, Disney-Pixar’s Woody at the American Adventure pavilion and Buzz Lightyear in Future World.
• Dozens of Disney-crafted “flower towers” and beds of multi-colored blooms will transform the park’s landscape. At least 70,000 bedding plants will surround the Future World east and west lakes alone; on the water, 220 mini-gardens will be set afloat.

To plan your visit to the 25th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival Email Me and we will get started.

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Next week’s post will be full of topiaries, this week I want to focus on the rest of the festival. We ventured into the Festival Center where we always must first have a moment of silence for one of our favorite extinct attractions…Cranium Command, then we were free to check out the new festival merchandise and catch part of a seminar on how Disney decorates the parks for Christmas!

We also visited two of the new “try it” kids areas, Radiator Springs and The Land of Oz.

Radiator Springs is a Cars themed play area that featured a playground, a garden of car parts and an area with pictures of car parts for you to look for in the garden.

The Oz play area included games of chance, fun house mirrors, a hot air balloon photo op, a playground and an ice cream sand”witch” cart! The area was beautiful and  fun respite for kids who needed a break from gazing at flowers.

Of course, this is the Flower & Garden Festival so there are 4 of my favorite flower pictures from our visit.

The other new addition to this year’s festival were the Garden Marketplaces and Festival Farms which were located around World Showcase, think mini Food & Wine Festival.  There were several new food choices available and I think the favorite Garden Marketplace was the Pineapple Promenade sponsored by Dole. Here you were able to purchase Dole Whip and other pineapple foods and beverages in Epcot. Jordan was very excited about this and even wore his Dole Whip shirt to celebrate.

We always enjoy the Flower and Garden Festival and I am sure we will spend a few more days there before the Festival ends on May 19th.

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