The 2006 Epcot Flower and Garden festival kicked off this weekend at Walt Disney World. I spent the better part of a day exploring the offerings and stopping to smell the roses. LaughingPlace.com provides much better coverage than I could ever do here, so go check it out. I’ll wait for you to come back…
You back? Good. Overall I was impressed with the flowers and the gardens, and the offerings are slightly bigger this year then in years past. On the downside, the new character connection has kicked the guest speaker outside into an area with no shade or A/C and it was plenty hot this weekend. That’s definately not an improvement. The area of the world showcase was very under-utilized with no backyard cooking demo area this year. Finally, I know this isn’t the food and wine festival, but with the park full of guests for the flower and garden festival would it hurt to have a few extra food locations open around the world showcase or future world. I know they have the booths and some healthy ‘garden fresh’ choices would be nice.
There was plenty I did enjoy. The Nelson concert, which featured third generation performers of the Nelson family, was wonderful and nostalgic. The line up of guest speakers is impressive this year and the new improved demo room is nice too. The sample gardens this year look interesting, however they were all closed due to rain, so I don’t know how informative they were. Most countries have their own little displays to explore (although some are direct repeats of past years). Germany’s garden train booth could set me back a few paychecks easily with the Disney themed merchandise they had there. And finally, the Romance theme this year is nice… they don’t over do it, but romance and flowers make natural partners.
So I hope you’ll make your way to Epcot over the next 5 weeks to enjoy the Flower and Garden festival. Take your time, it’s an exhibit best enjoyed at slow speed.
[ Tags: disney, epcot, disneyworld, wdw, disney+world, vacation, flower, garden, festival, flower+and+garden+festival, themepark, theme+park, fun, gardening ]