Cracking the Top 10 most visited theme parks in the world with close to 12 million visitors each year, EPCOT is a unique theme park that leans on edutainment to enhance the guest experience. This park has welcomed three new ride attractions and one new walk-through attraction in the last nine years, as well as a reimagining of the front area of the park. Home to one of the newest roller coasters at Walt Disney World with Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, EPCOT is always a busy park with wait times peaking in the evenings and weekends. The many food and drink offerings make this park a popular place for guests to hop to for dinner, and a huge draw for locals on the weekends (I know I’d be hanging out there!). Setting your alarm and heading to this park early will help alleviate some of the logistical hurdles so you can enjoy a relaxing, culinary tour of the World Showcase and everything else EPCOT has to offer

For non-resort guests, official park opening is typically at 9am, meaning Early Entry Rope Drop begins at 8:30am for guests staying at a Disney Resort and other participating Good Neighbor Hotels. EPCOT rarely changes its regular opening hours, and the majority of dining locations (and bars) in the World Showcase do not open until 11am, except for a couple of carts and locations with breakfast items.

In this addition to my Rope Drop Series, I will cover the logistics of traveling to and entering EPCOT for Early Entry Rope Drop, along with strategies to help you make the most of these early morning hours, and how to spend all that glorious free time you’ll have left. (Unsure what Early Entry Rope Drop is? Check out my post, “Why You Should Rope Drop at Disney World” for background information.)

Getting to the Park

There are multiple options for traveling to EPCOT, depending on what resort you are staying at. And, unlike any other theme park in Walt Disney World, there are two entrances to this park. For guests at Disney’s POP Century Resort, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, or Disney’s Riviera Resort, you will take the Skyliner to EPCOT and enter through the International Gateway at the rear of the park.

The wait to board the Skyliner on Pop or AoA will vary depending on your arrival time. I have personally waited up to 25 minutes in the morning. The travel time can vary, with a transfer required at the Caribbean Beach Hub for guests staying at POP Century and Art of Animation. Travel time averages about 15 minutes from POP/AOA (including the transfer stop), and about 5 – 10 minutes from Caribbean Beach and Riviera. This commute is slightly shorter than the trip to Hollywood Studios on the Skyliner. You’ll want to allow for at least an hour from door to door, so plan to leave your room no later than 7:30am.

Guests staying in the EPCOT Resort Area at Disney’s Boardwalk Inn, Disney’s Beach Club Resort, Disney’s Yacht Club Resort, or the Swan & Dolphin Resorts will leisurely stroll in through the International Gateway. This is easily my favorite overall resort area on property, with this short jaunt taking me directly into the World Showcase the epitome of convenience.

Guests staying in the Magic Kingdom resort area at one of the Monorail resorts – Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Disney’s Contemporary Resort & Bay Lake Tower, and Disney’s Polynesian Resort will ride Disney’s Monorail to EPCOT, transferring at the Transportation and Ticket Center. This trip can take about 20-30 minutes, depending on the timing of your Monorail. While the entrance loop into EPCOT is lovely, it does use up some precious time early in the morning.

All other resorts will utilize the Disney Bus service. During very busy times of the year, transportation will often begin running earlier than the 60-minute mark, and it’s important to factor travel time into your morning. If you are driving, parking also opens 60 minutes before early entry begins (occasionally earlier during peak seasons).

So, what time are you waking up? For those of you lucky enough to be staying in the EPCOT resort area by Crescent Lake, you can definitely sleep in for this Rope Drop morning. If you are hopping on a Disney Bus or Monorail, or queuing up for Disney’s Skyliner, you’ll want to be up and out around 7:15am to catch early transportation. For those entering through the front gates, there’s a Joffrey’s stand between security and the entrance that is often open early. Caffeine to the rescue!

Security and Park Entry

Security typically opens 45 minutes or more before early entry begins. This allows any lines forming outside the park to be let into the space between security and the turnstiles/MagicBand readers. This is where you will gather with everyone else who got up and out early to hit the parks. Yes, while the main point of rope drop is to avoid long lines in the park, you are still waiting a good 30 minutes outside of the gates if you want to be at the front of the crowd. The theme park logic in this is that you are not waiting during the park’s operating hours, at least for the first few rides of the day.

Cast members will usually start allowing guests into the park about 10-15 minutes before early entry starts, to alleviate the crowds gathering from the later busses, and to allow guests to walk up to the lands that are participating in early entry to wait.  If you are a non-resort guest and arrive early for official park opening, cast members will direct to you to a separate queue/corral area to wait.

After you tap your band, phone, or keycard and fingerprint for park entry, you’ll be directed towards cast members who have handheld readers to scan your ticket again. This is to ensure that you are indeed a Disney resort guest. If you are traveling with others, be sure that everyone included on your resort reservation is together for this step, so one person can be scanned, let the cast member know how many people are on the reservation, and they will simply count heads and let your group in. You’ll be corralled again to wait near attractions that will open with Early Entry, generally outside of the queue area or slightly outside of the land. Cast members will direct you where to go.

France, Norway, Xandar, or Test Track 3.0? (updated 11/16/25)

The four main attractions that guests head to at EPCOT’S Early Entry Rope Drop are Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (GOTG), and Test Track (3.0). This newest version of Test Track opened summer 2025, and it has had a positive effect on the early entry period at EPCOT.

Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is (obviously) located in France, and therefore the guests entering the park through the International Gateway have a drastic advantage over those entering from the front of the park. The “walking directions” feature on the MyDisneyExperience app times the walk from the front of EPCOT to Remy at 16 minutes, so at a Rope Drop pace you are still looking at 10-12 minutes to get to France, compared to the guests who are practically walking right into the pavilion. If you are entering through the main gates, you will have better luck heading pretty much anywhere else, especially during peak seasons. At a Rope Drop in January with very low crowds, I was able to make it to Remy’s from the front of the park (Frozen Ever After unexpectedly down for maintenance all day and GOTG still on virtual queue), but I had to haul and queued for about 20 minutes upon arriving at the attraction. This isn’t the norm though, and you might find a sizable line by the time you make the trek from the front.

Frozen Ever After is more equidistant from the Main Entrance and the International Gateway, about 10 – 12 minutes from either turnstile. If you have a kiddo who loves Anna and Elsa, or you yourself want to belt out “Let it Go” first thing in the morning, this ride has a level playing field at Rope Drop. While the queue area is cute and immersive, especially when you walk through Oaken’s Tokens & Sauna, it does get very “people-y” very quickly, with switchback chains filling a fairly small waiting area. For this reason, I love hitting Frozen at Rope Drop and zipping through the Arendelle Courtyard in just a couple minutes.

In the videos below, you’ll see the queue as I enter during Early Entry, and the wait that has built up after riding! Totally worth it to hustle to Norway.

One of the most popular attractions at Walt Disney World, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind changed from a virtual queue to a regular standby queue in Spring 2025. Up until that point, guests had to frantically tap into a “virtual queue” in the MyDisneyExperience app right at 7:00am while hopping on one foot and singing “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” only to often find themselves shut out of a boarding group, or given a return time during an evening dinner reservation. Thank goodness this was the last attraction on the VQ system!

Since becoming “Rope Drop-able,” this attraction has seen floods of guests early in the morning. If you are planning save EPCOT and the rest of the galaxy with the Guardians during your Early Entry time, you want to be at the front of the pack heading through security in the morning to make the most of it. If you are heading to Xandar from the International Gateway, you’ve got a 12-15 minute trek in front of you, depending on how much hustle you have first thing in the morning. Be prepared for a short wait by the time you arrive at the attraction, considering the wave coming in the front. (Please, do not run in the parks!)

If both pre-shows are operating for Guardians in the morning, that attraction will take about (at least?!) 30 minutes from the time you enter the Xandar Pavilion. If they aren’t running and are instead allowing guests to flow through, it will take closer to 15-20 minutes. Either way, it is still a time investment, and this might be the only “E-Ticket” attraction that you ride during Early Entry. Considering this attraction can have a 90+ minute wait during the day, it is still a great use of these early park hours if you do not want to buy an Individual Lightning Lane.

Now that Test Track is open, guests have a fourth headliner attraction to rush to when Early Entry begins — no shade to Soarin’ but it does not tend to get as long of a wait as these other attractions, and you can easily soar around the world later in the morning. Since opening this summer, Test Track has consistently seen 60+ minute wait times and often has a longer wait time than Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Since GOTG is located right next to Test Track, you’ll make the best use of your morning time heading to the roller coaster first and then zipping over to Test Track immediately afterwards. If you have an Individual Lightning Lane for GOTG lined up, you could ride Test Track and then hustle over to Norway via the Odyssey Bridge to catch Frozen Ever After before the park officially opens.

Test Track also has a single rider queue, and I found this to be extremely helpful during my EPCOT day. While the standby queue had a 75-minute posted wait, I was in my car in 15 minutes via the single rider queue. If riding with others, you will be separated from your group as a single rider, but it does save a ton of time.

Prepare to Pivot!

Unlike other parks, it is tricky to accomplish two top-tier attractions during Early Entry. A main reason for this is how spread out the “Big Four” rides are between Norway, France, and World Discovery. The walking times between these attractions are (again, based on the MDE app):

• Guardians of the Galaxy to Frozen Ever After – 10 min walk
• Guardians of the Galaxy to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure – 15 min walk
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure to Frozen Ever After – 14 min walk
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure to Soarin’ Around the World – 14 min walk
• Frozen Ever After to Soarin’ Around the World – 11 min walk
• Test Track to Frozen Ever After – 8 min walk
• Test Track to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure – 14 min walk

In almost every situation, by the time you get off your first attraction and walk to your second, Early Entry Rope Drop will be over and non-resort guests who have been waiting in corrals will be let into queues. This will still be a shorter wait than later in the day, but it’s not as efficient as Animal Kingdom Rope Drop or Hollywood Studios Rope Drop, with popular rides fairly close to each other. If you have your heart set on crushing both Remy and Frozen during Early Entry, you may want to temper your expectations, and prepare to pivot to another attraction. (Or, make sure you are on the very first transportation option of the day!)

Currently, my preferred #2 ride is Soarin’ Around the World. Whether I am heading over from France or Norway (GOTG Rope Drop is not for me – I’d rather purchase an Individual Lightning Lane for a time of my choice later in the day), I like to grab a Joffrey’s and leisurely head to the front of the park, specifically to The Land Pavilion. Most guests are going to try to fit in one of the other headliner attractions and so at this point I am going to take advantage of a walk on at Soarin’ to keep things moving.  

There are a few very popular breakfast places in EPCOT, if you’re willing to wait. In France, Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie and Crepes A Emporter be La Creperie de Paris start serving at 8:30am and 9:00am respectively, and Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe in Norway also opens at 9:00am. These spots are super popular and do see long lines build up after the first riders exit the attractions in these countries, so be prepared. (I have actually Rope Dropped Les Halles in France and it was 100% worth it!) If you just want a quick breakfast treat, head to Oasis Sweets & Sips in Morocco (right next to France) or the Joffrey’s cart in America in the World Showcase. At the front of the park, you can grab a breakfast bite at Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavilion on your way to Soarin’, or see what the line looks like at Connections Cafe (aka Starbucks).

Late-Morning Luxuriating

At this point, the park has been open to all guests for a bit, and while there could be some moderate waits around the park, it should be pretty easy to hop on attractions like Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, Living with the Land, and the Seas with Nemo and Friends. This is also a great time to check out Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana, a beautiful interactive walkthrough that embodies classic EPCOT edutainment.

If you want to say hi to some character friends, this park has a ton of meet and greets, with many of your favorites hanging out in the pavilion country that aligns with their story. For example, Winnie the Pooh and Alice from Alice in Wonderland meet guests in the UK Pavilion, Anna and Elsa will welcome you to Arendelle in Norway, and Belle says “bonjour” to guests in France. At the front of the park, you can meet the classic EPCOT mascot Figment over in the Imagination Pavilion, as well as Mickey & Friends near CommuniCore Hall.

Most times of the year there is a festival happening at EPCOT, and you can spend some time enjoying the special offerings and entertainment on offer. While the shows and displays will change with each festival, there is always some variety of Outdoor Kitchens throughout the park that offer up tasty bites and sips starting at 11am. The EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival is happening as I write this, and exploring the gardens and topiaries is a relaxing way to downshift after a busy Rope Drop morning, before you start your quest for culinary delights throughout the World Showcase.

Looking to travel the world and save the galaxy, all in one day? EPCOT has it all!

Let’s map out your next Magical Quest today!