Empty Epcot

Memorial Day Weekend begins the heavy influx of visitors to both West Coast and East Coast Disney resorts. The high guest count lasts through the end of summer. In honor of that, I thought I'd post a few photos of Epcot during some less hectic days.

The photos above show Future World around 11:00am. Every attraction's queue was empty with the exception of Soarin'. In fact, after arriving at opening time and departing at closing shortly after Illuminations, I was able to experience every attraction in the park at least once. That included Soarin' twice, Test Track three times, and Gran Fiesta twice.

As you can tell, there were very few folks in the park, making for an odd day. Why odd? On the plus side, it was great experiencing everything at a leisurely pace. Very similar to our first visit in 1983. This made the day feel like a step backward in time. Negatively, there was a certain level of excitement missing due to the lack of people. The energy level was very low, and the audience response to the highlights of the individual attractions minimal at best.



These World Showcase photos were taken between the hours of 2:00pm and 5:00pm, which should have been the peak time for crowds. Pretty amazing, huh? Even more amazing is the fact these shots were taken the last week of August. Nice weather, small crowds, no lines, and late hours. Just like the Disney World of old.

(Photographs copyright Mark Taft.)