Yesterday was the first day of the 2023 Flower and Garden Festival and I was so excited to be able to go! This is by far my favorite festival. All the beautiful flowers, topiaries and of course TONS of my favorite little Orange Bird! The festival will run from March 1st – July 5th and is a don’t miss! This is my guide to the 2023 Flower and Garden Festival based off my day 1 visit!
What Is The Flower & Garden Festival?
This festival is a celebration of flowers, flavor, imagination and fun! The Disney garden and landscape crew out does themselves every year painting the park in bright, colorful flowers, character topiaries and themed gardens. Epcot chefs put together menus that use fresh ingredients and lots of colors. A lot of the menu items are plant based and I LOVE THIS SO MUCH! You must have Epcot admission to go to the festival but past that, enjoying what the festival has to offer is mostly free.
What Is There To See At The Flower & Garden Festival
So much! All of Epcot is so beautiful at this festival. But there are specific things you will want to keep your eye out for.
Topiaries
There are over 100 topiaries at this years festival! They are placed all over the park from the entrance to all throughout World Showcase. There are 70 Disney character topiaries including some new ones! The new topiaries include the Family Madrigal from Encanto and Princess Tiana from The Princess & The Frog. These two additions are gorgeous, I was really excited to see them yesterday!
There are also some of my favorites like Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, the fab 5 and the Three Caballeros. They are all located in random places throughout the park like the entrance, over by Guardians of the Galaxy and at the Port of Entry or you will find them in their respective countries. Tiana is in the America Pavilion, Snow White is in Germany, Beauty and the Beast in France…..you get it! There are also beautiful butterfly topiaries and an amazing dragon in Japan! Just doing a quick loop of World Showcase today we saw most of the topiaries.
Gardens
In addition to the topiaries there are also themed gardens all over the park. There are 21 total and each one is unique in it’s appearance as well as it’s smells! The Tropical Rainforest Garden is in Mexico and is so beautiful, the Honey Bee-stro Garden hosted by the National Honey Board is really neat too. In this garden you can learn about honeybees’ critical role in the environment and see some beautiful honeybee friendly plants and flowers. There is even a Tuscan kitchen garden in Italy called Garden Italiano with herbs and produce that smell so good and could make an amazing Italian feast!
There are also floating gardens as you enter World Showcase and festival blooms that line all the green spaces around the water that are so colorful and stunning! They even have a 50th theme to some of them. I look forward to exploring these more throughout the festival, they are really interesting and all smell so good!
Butterfly House
This is such a cool thing to go see, especially with kids! In the Butterfly House you follow the journey of the Monarch Butterfly as it travels across the continent. You will see all stages of the butterflies, from chrysalis to hatching to flying all around you. If you stand nice and still, some of the hundreds of butterflies in the house may even come and visit you! I can’t wait to take the boys in here and let them see all the butterflies.
Garden Rocks Concert Series
At the American Gardens Theater you can enjoy concerts from bands and singers from the 60’s all the way to the 00’s. You can find the full line up of performers and their dates here. I’m pretty excited for Simple Plan, Plain white T’s and Starship! I have to say that the concerts are one of my favorite parts of the festivals. I can’t wait to be able to go rock out at a concert once dance season has ended.
Encanto Show On Spaceship Earth
One of the best additions to the parks for the 50th Anniversary is most definitely the light shows on Spaceship Earth! They are mesmerizing. And with each festival, we get a new show added in. Flower & Garden is no exception. For this festival we get a new Encanto show and I cannot wait to go see it, I could literally go sit and just watch the light show on Spaceship Earth all night!
What Fun Things Are There To Do
Well, in addition to seeing all the amazing gardens and topiaries there are also some fun activities you can do at the festival.
Healthful Trail
This is located along the Imagination Walkway and is a pretty garden trail that includes different places for families to learn ways to stay healthy.
Spikes Pollen Nation Exploration Scavenger Hunt
I always love the scavenger hunts at the festivals. They are such a great way to explore all the pavilions in World Showcase. This one is great because you get to explore all the gardens throughout the park searching for Spike the Bee in each one by a specific plant. Each plant you find has an information card there that tells you about that plant and the garden it is in. You do not have to wait until your done to turn it in for your prize, you can go ahead and get it when you purchase the scavenger hunt like I did yesterday. The hunt is $9.99 and you can use pass holder or DVC discounts for these.
The prizes are always super cute for the scavenger hunt but Flower & Garden festival prizes are the BEST! I may be biased because you can get an Orange Bird one but they are all really cute and something you can actually use. This year you can choose from a cup or plate that is Orange Bird, Figment, Snow White or Spike the Bee. Of course I had to get two so I could have the Orange Bird set, but believe it or not that’s the only thing I purchased yesterday at the festival. when you see all the other merchandise you will understand why this is really an accomplishment for me! Hahaha
Garden Graze
Always make sure you pick up a festival passport when you get into the World Showcase, this is where you find the food trail for that festival. At Flower & Garden it is called the Garden Graze and is by far my favorite! All of the items on this trail are plant based foods and look delicious. Just like the other festivals, you have to get 5 stamps and then you go to the Pineapple Promenade and show a cast member who will give you your completer prize. At Flower & Garden, the completer prize is a Dole Whip Lime (this is the only way to get this flavor) in a souvenir cup and a packet of wildflower seeds to plant at home! Such a cool prize!
What About The Food
I mean, this IS an Epcot festival so of course we have to talk about the food!! You can find special items at the Refreshment Port and Connections Cafe but we all want to know about those kitchens!
Food Kitchens
There are 22 different food kitchens and you can find most of them in the pavilions throughout World Showcase. They are in there respective countries with the exception of Brunchcot that is new this year and located by Test Track and the Cirtus Blossom which is inside the Odyssey Pavilion and where you can find the Orange Bird sipper cup and an Orange Bird heaven that I would love to live in! Haha! Whats nice about the food kitchens is that everything is priced between $4-$15 including the alcoholic drinks and are typically smaller portions so you can try a few things without getting stuffed and without breaking the bank.
Each booth has a unique menu specific to their region. you can find a full list of menus and kitchens here. I had the Frushi from the Hanami booth in Japan yesterday. It is by far my favorite thing to get at any festival. It is a fruit sushi Mae with coconut rice, strawberries, cantaloupe and pineapple. Two years ago I found the recipe and started making it myself at home since I couldn’t get to the festival. There are so many things I can’t wait to try at this years Flower & Garden though, but Frushi had to happen on opening day.
How About Some Shopping
If you want to shop, this festival is serving you with all the cute new merchandise in lots of different styles! My pictures prove my bias for sure, I am all about ALL the Orange Bird merchandise for this festival! I need another job just to fund this festival shopping spree. Hahahaha! If anyone would like to donate to the cause just let me know, I’m open to donations. Just kidding, kind of, but seriously the merchandise at this festival is amazing.
If Orange Bird isn’t your jam (we can’t be friends, jk), you can check out the Figment collection or even the really soft and pretty Snow White collection. There is also an exclusive pass holder collection, but if I’m being honest it isn’t my favorite. Compared to everything else it doesn’t really seem like they put much effort into this collection, but you may really love it!
You can find festival merchandise in Creations Shop, the Odyssey Pavilion and the festival shops all throughout World Showcase. What I really love about the merchandise at this festival is that it has so many fun and different items like garden stepping stones and planters. Anybody need a used kidney?!
Flower & Garden Festival Tips
Here are just a few things I find helpful for this festival and thought I would pass along to you!
- Get a wristband gift card – At the festival shops you can get a Disney gift card that is on a wristband and has the cutest Flower & Garden Festival designs on them (yes, there is an Orange Bird one and yes, I got it yesterday. Haha). These gift cards are a great way to set a budget for what you want to spend on food or merchandise or both and stick to it.
- If you have never stopped in the Germany Pavilion and watched the little trains that go through a tiny village, there is no better time to do it than during this festival. It gets a little revamp and has it’s own tiny Flower & Garden festival going on!
- Do the Garden Graze and the Scavenger Hunt! These are both amazing ways to experience all that the festival has to offer. The scavenger hunt takes you into all the pavilions and the Garden Graze helps you try some new foods and check out food booths you may not have gone to otherwise.
Conclusion
So clearly you can tell this is my all time favorite festival. Not just because my favorite little Orange Bird is everywhere, although that is a contributing factor, but truly because it is just such a beautiful festival. There is color everywhere and wonderful smells and lots of good food and learning opportunities. You can learn about gardening, about living a healthy lifestyle, about different plants and even all about butterflies! I know learning isn’t everyones idea of fun but I personally love that it is such a bug part of this festival. If you are headed to Walt Disney World before July 5th, don’t miss out on this incredible festival, it will not disappoint you! As always, thank you all so much for being here and have a magical day!
