My two cents on: Epcot with Young Kiddos

I feel like Epcot gets a bad wrap. There's tons of blogs about drinking your way through Epcot, and I guess that's an option, but there's so much more to Epcot than alcohol. I see Epcot as great fun and learning opportunity for our girls; and they seem to agree. Here's a look at what our last visit to Epcot looked like for us...
First, we timed our arrival for about 20 minutes before the park opened. This is a great tip for visits when the crowd calendar is showing a slow/medium traffic day at the park, arrive earlier on heavy traffic days. While rides may not be up and running just yet, you can enter the park about 15 minutes early. This gives you time to casually walk in, look around, and meet a few characters before the park gets too crazy. We first made a quick stop at Guest Services to fix an issue with our annual pass (a cast member fixed it quickly, and then gave each member in our party a coupon for a free ice cream-- Disney has the best customer service), then used the Disney app to see what characters were around, we were able to meet Pluto, then walked straight in at the Character Spot and met the rest of the gang (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, & Goofy). Everyone wants to meet these characters while at Disney, I recommend meeting them anywhere but Magic Kingdom-- the lines are typically longer there. The park opened at 9AM, we did all of this by 10AM.
Epcot is split up into two sections. When you first walk in you are in Future World. Here is where the majority of the rides are housed at Epcot. We had Fast Passes for Test Track, Spaceship Earth, and Mission Space. Our four year old daughter has ridden Test Track a few times now and loves it, she's a bit of a thrill seeker though. We also rode Mission Space while Grandma hung out with the girls.. if you aren't lucky enough to be traveling with a Grandma, rider swap is an option on many rides. Rider swap means that you one adult can ride independently or with another member of your party, then switch with another adult and they can watch the kiddo and you can ride. If you are traveling with a younger child and an older child, this can actually work in your advantage because the older kid may get to ride twice. There are several other attractions in Future World, for those traveling with littles you may be interested in include:

• Finding Nemo- This is a cute little ride that takes you through scenes from the movie, the ride ends by dropping you into a huge room filled with aquariums- my girls can spend a huge chunk of time here!
• Turtle Talk with Crush- a cute interactive attraction! Children can ask their questions to Crush via a cast member, and Crush answers! My four year old thought this was funny, my one year old was too squirmy so I ended up taking her back to the aquarium.
• The Circle of Life- We've never done this one (this post is making me realize we need to spend a bit more time in Future World!).  This is a 20 minute film about conservation, narrated by some popular friends from The Lion King.
• Soarin'- We went back and rode this one in the evening with one of our refilled fastpasses, our four year old is tall enough to ride, Grandma took our youngest to ride Nemo again (which is generally a pretty short line). The basis of a ride is you are "soaring" through California; you visit all over the state. Note: this attraction is currently closed while they prepare for an updated version--  I'm curious to see how it turns out!
• Living with the Land- Personally, we enjoyed this ride. You get on a boat and get to ride through some different environments before going into a greenhouse and learning about food production. What I think is super cool about this attraction is that the food grown in the greenhouses is actually used at some of the restaurants at Epcot.
• Journey into Imagination- The queue for this line is pretty fun, and the ride is a faster pace (as far as kid friendly rides go) through imagination and can teach kids about their senses in a fun way.
• Ellen's Energy Adventure- It's a ride (they refer to it as a traveling theater system) that takes you through the history of energy production and the search for new energy resources. This is a longer attraction, 45 minutes, so if you are needing a break this may be for you, although reviews are lack-luster. We tried it out on our last visit and it came at a time our girls needed a break, so it worked out well for us. Be advised though that there's no way off so you are really stuck for 45 minutes-- we may or may not have had to put a diaper on our oldest when she decided she needed a potty break.   

Next is the World Showcase. Although it's lacking in attractions, its probably my favorite part of Epcot. The scenery and theming are just done so well, and the food isn't too bad either. If you are entering the Showcase with kiddos, I recommend looking into one of the two activities below. These activities will give your child something to work on while you are walking around the showcase.

Loving on her Duffy Bear.

• Agent P's World Showcase Adventure- This is based on the TV show Phineas and Ferb and is probably more appropriate for older kids. See a cast member and they will give you a device to complete your challenges. My understanding is there are puzzles and challenges in a variety of places in the Showcase. Some parents use this as a great activity to kill time during a shower, too. 
• KidCot Fun Spots- This one I'm more familiar with because my girls do it. You are given a Duffy Bear and in each country there's a station where you can work on coloring your bear and a cast member will give you a stamp for the country as well as some other fun facts. Often they will tell you "hello" in the appropriate language, draw the country's flag, write your child's name in their characters ( if applicable), do origami with you, all kinds of cool stuff! These spots can be a little tricky to find as they are often off the beaten path, but look for the signs or ask a cast member!

I enjoy the Showcase because there's always something to see. There are characters that have shorter lines than at the Magic Kingdom, there are performers everywhere, tasty food, quaint shops.. I feel like every time I go I could fall in love with a different country. On our last visit we had a quick service meal in Japan and sat for the longest time watching the drummers and enjoying the serenity of the water. The candy in Japan was also a hit with our kiddos. My eldest has a sensitivity to Red Dye 40 and was able to find lots of candies to snack on (and bring home) that were red dye free. 

Our last trip we also had a first, our first character meal! We were able to get a reservation for the princess dinner at Akershus. Character dining can be expensive, the food was pretty good, but the moments my daughters had with those princesses? Totally worth it! The princesses also take the little ones on a parade through the restaurant which is super cute!

Don't miss out on IllumiNations, the nightly show either. It combines some neat water effects with fireworks to tell an interesting story about our world. My favorite place to view them? From La Cantina de San Angel. After snacking all day, a late dinner is easy and you will have a spectacular view of the fireworks! They even pipe in the audio for the show so you don't miss a thing! Enjoying yummy Mexican food while sitting in an air conditioned room (not in the rain) watching fireworks? Yep, pretty awesome. 

Epcot is definitely one of my favorites. The scenery in the World Showcase is great (as is the food), and I feel like my little sponges get to take in so much knowledge in a new and exciting way. What do you like to do with your kiddos at Epcot?