A Word of Warning About the 2022 EPCOT Festival of the Holidays…

Well, the day is officially here. We’re putting on our red and green, singing Christmas carols, and getting ready to eat our weight in cookies!

The EPCOT Festival of the Holidays has arrived! As the first day of the festival, we do expect things in EPCOT to be pretty busy, so let’s take a look at what the crowds look like!

Before the Festival

We got to EPCOT before the park opening time and these are the crowds we arrived to. It seems like plenty of people were ready to go visit the festival!

After waiting a few minutes, the lines at the entrance had grown quite a bit.

Once the park opened and guests started scanning in, the crowds were able to disperse a bit.

During the Festival

Even though crowds were able to disperse, there are popular spots around EPCOT that people fled to. One of those was the Mexico pavilion — look at this line to enter the pavilion!

Along with the line, the area around the Mexico pavilion was very people-y.

These crowds continued into the more spacious China pavilion.

If crowds cause you anxiety, be prepared when visiting the festival. This is the first day so crowds may be better when you visit, however the holidays are a very busy time for Disney World in general. Take a look at our tips for dealing with crowds in the parks here.

So needless to say, if you’re headed to the festival today, be sure to bring your patience — there will be some crowds to deal with. But don’t forget to have fun — there’s so much to enjoy, including the storytellers and Candlelight Processional.

Need to look over all the menus at the food booths? Don’t worry! We’ve got you covered.