EPCOT Itinerary With Small Kids- Best Rides, Characters, Dining

A trip to Walt Disney World with small children can be one of the most magical experiences that you ever have. However, once the planning ensues, it may seem like an extremely stressful task. You’ll soon find yourself worrying about what they can do, where they can eat, and if they’ll even enjoy themselves.

These concerns may become even more pressing when planning for a day at EPCOT with a small child. As a park that’s generally viewed as a great place for adults, is there anything for children to enjoy?

You may be surprised by how much EPCOT has to offer for small children. As a mother of two who frequently visits Walt Disney World, I’ve enjoyed many trips to EPCOT with my little ones. In this article, I’m going to help you put together an itinerary for your day at EPCOT with your small kids. Keep reading to see how both you and your little one can have the best time together at The Most Magical Place on Earth.

Preparing for Your Visit

Besides making plans for your day at EPCOT with your little one, you can also get a head start on your day. By following these simple steps, you’ll be ready for fun as soon as you arrive at the park.

• For guaranteed entry into the park, you’ll need to purchase valid theme park tickets. Children ages two and younger are not required to have a ticket. If your child is in this age range, they’re able to enter EPCOT for free!
• After purchasing your tickets, you’ll want to download the My Disney Experience app to your smartphone. This app will be an extremely useful tool throughout the entirety of your vacation. Not only will you be able to access your tickets, you’ll also be able to use the app to order food, purchase merchandise, make and manage reservations, check wait times, view your Disney PhotoPass photos, and manage your Lightning Lane Passes.
• Another way to prepare yourself for your day at EPCOT is by familiarizing yourself with the park. You can view park hours, maps, entertainment schedules, menus, and information about the rides and attractions on the Walt Disney World website or on the My Disney Experience app. By looking at these items in advance, you'll get a good understanding of the layout of the park as well as what you’d like to accomplish during your day.
• Prior to your trip, you will enter a time period when you’ll be able to make advanced reservations. Reservations can be made for dining, Enchanting Extras, and Lightning Lane Passes. Dining reservations and most Enchanting Extras can be booked 60 days in advance. Lightning Lane Passes can be purchased 7 days in advance by Guests staying on Walt Disney World property and 3 days in advance by all other Guests.

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Starting Your Day

With younger kids, it’s a good idea to take advantage of the early morning hours. Little ones wake up full of energy and ready to take on the day. Their excitement and eagerness will be the necessary fuel to get them moving in the morning and ready for the fun day ahead.

To save valuable park time, I recommend feeding your child breakfast before heading to EPCOT for the day. They can eat a quick meal in the hotel room while everyone’s getting ready, at one of the resort hotel restaurants, or while you’re on the way to the park. By having this meal out of the way, you’ll be able to start tackling your EPCOT itinerary as soon as you make your way into the park.

While breakfast is notoriously known as the most important meal of the day, when traveling with a child, every meal is important. In order to keep grumpy attitudes and tantrums at bay, you’ll want to make sure that your child’s tummy never feels empty. Snacks are a great way to keep energy levels up and spirits high. Make sure that you pack enough snacks in your park bag to help satisfy your little one’s hunger throughout the day.

Get to EPCOT Early

Since you’re wanting to utilize your little one’s early morning energy, you’ll want to get to the park as soon as possible. It’s a great idea to rope drop on your EPCOT day. By doing so, you’ll arrive early enough to enter the park as soon as it opens. EPCOT generally opens around 9:00am and occasionally opens later at 10:00am. However, hours do vary. Make sure that you check out the specific park hours for the day of your visit so you can plan accordingly.

If you’re staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel, you’ll be able to enter the park even earlier. All Guests of Disney Resort hotels have complimentary Early Theme Park Entry. With this early access perk, Disney Hotel Guests are able to enter the parks 30 minutes before they open up to the general public. While this isn’t a huge amount of time, I recommend taking advantage of these extra 30 minutes. It’s a great opportunity to get some of the most popular rides out of the way before the lines start to fill up.

Making a Plan

Understandably, an EPCOT itinerary with small children will look different for each family. When it comes to planning out your day, you’ll want to consider your child’s interests, their height, and the popularity of the rides and attractions.

Luckily, a lot of EPCOT’s rides have no height requirement, which means Guests of all ages are able to enjoy them. Furthermore, even the more thrilling rides have lower height requirements that many children may be able to meet. By the time my son was 5, he was able to ride every ride at EPCOT.

Remember, when planning your own itinerary, you’ll want to think about which rides are the most important to you. These are the ones you’ll want to prioritize. The popularity of the rides should also be considered when thinking about what order you want to do things in.

The most popular rides at EPCOT are:

• Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (42”)
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• Frozen Ever After

Again, you’ll want to think about your child’s specific height. If they don’t meet the requirement of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, you can skip past this ride while planning your day.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

If your little one is tall enough to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and is interested in doing so, this should be the top priority of your EPCOT day. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is not only one of the most popular rides at EPCOT, it’s one of the most popular rides on Walt Disney World property.

Currently, there are two different ways to get on the ride – purchasing a Lightning Lane Single Pass or standby. Since my family enjoys this ride so much, we always opt to purchase Lightning Lane to enjoy it. 

If you absolutely want to ride this ride, I would recommend purchasing Lightning Lane Single Passes. By doing so, you’ll have guaranteed access onto the ride. 

Family Favorites

The next ride you’ll want to think about is Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. This ride has no height requirement and has been extremely popular among families since its opening day. Because of this, the line fills up very quickly and holds long wait times throughout the day. While I very much enjoy this ride, I don’t personally think that it’s worth standing in a super long line for. Therefore, I would recommend this being your first Lightning Lane Multi Pass selection. If you’re not utilizing Lightning Lanes, this should be the ride that you rope drop, meaning it should be the first ride that you head to when you enter the park.

Frozen Ever After is very similar to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in regards to popularity. Again, this ride has no height requirement and is a very popular family ride. Frozen’s large following also plays heavily into the popularity of the ride. If your child prefers Frozen over Ratatouille, Frozen Ever After can be your first Lightning Lane Multi Pass selection or the first ride that you head to during the day. If not, it should be your second stop of the day.

Continuing Your Morning

After you’ve picked your top priority rides, you’ll be ready to move on with the rest of your day. Luckily, a lot of EPCOT’s rides naturally have much lower wait times in comparison to the most popular rides. Once you make it through the heavy hitters, you should be able to swiftly move through the rest of your day, even if you’re choosing to go about your day without using Lightning Lane Passes.

Besides the rides that we’ve already discussed, there’s one more ride that often yields pretty long wait times – Soarin’ Around the World. This should be the next ride that you plan on riding. Soarin’ has a 40” height requirement, so you’ll want to keep in mind that your child may or may not be tall enough to ride.

When going about my day, I also like to take the location of rides and attractions into consideration. Since Soarin’ is located in The Land pavilion, afterwards, I would recommend heading over to Living with the Land, which is located in the same pavilion. After you’ve finished, you can take a short stroll to the nearby Seas pavilion. Here, you can enjoy an underwater adventure during your ride on The Seas with Nemo & Friends.

EPCOT Lunch for Small Children

EPCOT has the most unique restaurants out of all of the Walt Disney World theme parks. However, this isn’t something that interests most small children. Usually, little ones are content with their standard meals and prefer to keep it simple.

For lunch, I always recommend visiting a quick service restaurant. This way, you’re taking very little time out of your park day, giving you more time to get through all of the rides and attractions.

Connections Eatery is a great place to take little ones for a tasty lunch. While there are dishes that are inspired by Italian, French, and Asian cuisines, there are also plenty of American foods on the menu. Here, children can take their pick from a Cheeseburger, Chicken Skewer, Chicken Strips, and a Cheese Pizza.

Tasty milkshakes are also on the menu, which make a great dessert! If you have a cake pop kiddo in your life, they may prefer to stop at Connections Cafe, which is located in the same building, to grab a Starbucks Cake Pop after they’ve finished their meal.

Afternoon Itinerary

Once those little tummies are full, you’ll be ready to tackle more of your day. After you leave Connections Eatery, you’ll be in close proximity to Mission: SPACE. With a 40” height requirement, this is a ride that only some children will be tall enough to ride. However, even if your child is tall enough to ride this ride and show interest in doing so, I would be cautious. Mission: SPACE is an extremely realistic simulator ride that many adults even struggle with. This is a ride that I would suggest skipping overall unless your child is very adamant about riding it.

Most riders struggle from feeling very nauseous after riding this ride. Because of this, this is one time when I would skip the close proximity rule. If your child is going to ride this ride, it would be better to save it for later in the day, rather than doing it right after lunch. Instead, I would choose a calm and easy ride like Spaceship Earth. After that, there’s only one more ride left at EPCOT – Journey Into Imagination with Figment.

As you’ve probably noticed, there isn’t a large number of rides at EPCOT. Luckily, there’s even more fun activities for kids to enjoy.

Additional Fun for Children

There are multiple areas within EPCOT where children can play, explore, and simply have fun. One of the best play areas, Space Base, is located at the exit of Mission: SPACE. This indoor playground is the perfect place for little ones to let off some steam with the additional comfort of air conditioning. Here, kids can run, climb, and slide, while the grown ups sit and relax in the provided seating areas. Little ones are welcome to come play here even if no one in their party took a ride on Mission: SPACE.

Another playground is located outdoors near the Creations Shop. This playground, called Green Landing Family Play Zone, is filled with a variety of play structures that are themed to Wall-E. At Green Landing, kids can run, climb, balance, and play interactive mind games. There’s also a specified area where tiny kiddos can play on rockers and do hands-on activities.

More indoor fun can be had at ImageWorks – The “What If” Labs in the Imagination Pavilion. This play area is designed to help kiddos connect with their senses and stretch their imagination through a variety of interactive activities.

Water-Themed Fun

On those hot Florida days, your little one will love running through the water of the World Discovery Liquid Layer Splash Pad. This is a great place for children to take a break from the day, cool off, and let some of their energy out.

My children also enjoy the interactive Moana-themed walkthrough, Journey of Water. Here, Guests can learn about the life cycle of water while doing hands-on, interactive water activities. Your little one is sure to enjoy the jumping water, directing their own water spouts, and walking through a curtain of water. While they’re there, encourage your little one to find familiar Moana characters within the rock work.

Speaking of water, one of the most unique areas at Walt Disney World that children love is the SeaBase Aquarium. At this 5.7-million-gallon habitat, little ones can get up close with ocean creatures such as sea turtles, sharks, fish, rays, manatees, and more. There’s also a small area called Bruce’s Shark World, where kids can play and learn fun facts about sharks.

EPCOT Dinner for Small Children

After all of the fun and excitement of the day, your little one will be ready for a hearty dinner. This is the perfect opportunity to sit down and relax at a full service restaurant. There are restaurants located within each pavilion of World Showcase where you and your child can dine on delicious cuisine from other countries. EPCOT also offers two different character dining experiences, one at Garden Grill Restaurant and another at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.

However, for an out of this world experience, consider taking your child to Space 220. During their meal, they’ll be able to enjoy galactic views from the window, where they can see Earth from 220 miles up!

There are plenty of delicious foods on the kids menu. Even the pickiest of eaters should have no issues dining here. Little ones can enjoy familiar foods such as Fried Mozzarella, Macaroni and Cheese, Salad, Fruits, Vegetables, Spaghetti, Chicken Tenders, a Cheeseburger, Beef Tenderloin, and Salmon. For dessert, they can choose from Jell-O, Gelato, Sorbet, or an Ice Cream Sundae.

Entertainment

EPCOT has many different entertainment offerings that children can enjoy throughout the day, including live music, cinematic experiences, and a nighttime spectacular. One of the most popular entertainment offerings among little ones is Turtle Talk With Crush.

During this experience, little ones come face to face with Crush from Finding Nemo and get to have a chat with him. Crush stops by to tell little dudes and dudettes all about ocean life and to answer any questions that they may have. This conversation is always fun for little ones and generally becomes extremely entertaining for all of the adults present.

Meeting Characters at EPCOT

If your little one loves Disney Princesses, they’ll be especially pleased at EPCOT. Many princesses can be met at the different pavilions of World Showcase and dined with at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. At Akershus, Guests can dine inside a medieval castle while enjoying Norwegian-inspired food. During the meal, Disney Princesses stop by each table for a visit. Your little one will have an opportunity to have their picture taken, ask for an autograph, and get a hug from the royals. While the princesses in attendance vary, you can frequently meet Ariel, Tiana, Jasmine, Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White here.

Another EPCOT restaurant that provides a character dining experience is Garden Grill Restaurant. At Garden Grill, your little one will be able to enjoy a “down on the farm” feast while some of their favorite pals stop by for a visit. Mickey, Pluto, Chip, and Dale will all make an appearance in some extremely cute farm outfits. Besides character visits, your child will also be able to take in exciting views of the Living with the Land attraction, where many of the vegetables that are on your table were grown.

Even more characters can be met at character meet and greets. Here’s a complete list of all of the characters that can be met at EPCOT as well as where they’re located.

• Winnie the Pooh – United Kingdom Pavilion
• Alice – United Kingdom Pavilion
• Anna and Elsa – Norway Pavilion (Royal Summerhaus)
• Asha – World Showcase Plaza
• Belle – France Pavilion
• Disney Pals – World Celebration (Mickey & Friends)
• Donald Duck – Mexico Pavilion
• Figment – ImageWorks
• Mulan – China Pavilion
• Pluto – EPCOT Main Entrance
• Princess Aurora – France Pavilion
• Princess Jasmine – Morocco Pavilion
• Snow White – Germany Pavilion
• Star-Lord – Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

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