Uh, What Are These Magic Kingdom Characters Doing in EPCOT?

EPCOT is one of the best parks to meet fan-favorite characters, since they always have a wide variety of your favs, usually with significantly shorter lines than Magic Kingdom.

It’s pretty common for surprise characters to pop up in EPCOT’s International Gateway. We’ve seen icons like Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Pluto, Aurora, and Merida, but just when we thought we couldn’t be surprised by the character lineup, Disney decided to shake things up!

When we were strolling through the International Gateway yesterday to head to the Skyliner, what we saw stopped us in our tracks. At first, we honestly wondered if we were starting to hallucinate from the Florida heat. But no – the Country Bears were meeting at EPCOT! They are from one of our favorite Magic Kingdom show The Country Bear Jamboree, which includes fun songs, great energy, and amazing AC on a hot day.

The Country Bears usually only meet in Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland, so we were shocked when we saw this surprise meet-and-greet in EPCOT! We met Wendell, Big Al, and Romeo McGrowl.

While we often see rare characters pop up at the International Gateway, we’ve never seen the Country Bears at EPCOT. So this meet-and-greet became super popular while we were there.

So why were the Country Bears in EPCOT? We saw lots of Character Attendant Cast Members with a red “Earning My Ears” banner under their name tag, which means they’re currently in training. So this means the Country Bears were out as a part of a character palooza where a bunch of random characters come out to meet guests.

These appearances are never scheduled or planned, and while they can pop up at the International Gateway or the World Showcase  on training days to help Cast Members practice before they start working at an official meet-and-greet. They can also pop up all around Disney. Which explains the Country Bears’ sudden appearance!

We had so much fun seeing the Country Bears at EPCOT. It was an awesome surprise. Stay tuned to AllEars for more Disney World news!

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What’s your favorite character to meet at Disney World? Comment below!