I have been going on vacations to Walt Disney World every year since I was two years old. I’ve always loved the magic of Disney and how innovative the parks were. As I got older, I started to appreciate the details within every park, ride, and attraction. That’s when my favorite park became Epcot.
Epcot has always held a special place in my heart, but my favorite part of the park by far is the World Showcase. If you ever wanted to travel around the world in one day, you could do it here. World Showcase is a collection of 11 pavilions, each representing a different country. The countries are Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, Morocco, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Each pavilion is specifically themed with the culture and food of that country. Each country has restaurants that sell authentic cuisine, shops with merchandise authentic to the country, and attractions that highlight that country’s cultural experiences. The architecture of the pavilions is designed to replicate specific elements of each respective nation, and also replicates famous landmarks you can find there.
My favorite part of World Showcase is the interactions with many different people. Disney hosts a culture program called the Disney International Program. This is an internship that allows Disney to hire employees from different countries, specifically the ones in the World Showcase. This program takes the park’s experience to a whole new level, where you can feel like you are truly immersed in the cultures of the different countries.
I love interacting with the people and asking them questions about their homelands. Likewise, they love answering questions and sharing their homes with you. Whether you want to learn about the language, traditions, or anything else, they will surely answer it for you, as well as give you recommendations about the most authentic food and drinks.
Each country is different and special in its own way. I can spend hours walking through the pavilions and finding details I never noticed before. I always try to buy at least one souvenir from the World Showcase every time I go to Epcot, and I try to make it something I could only buy there or in the country itself.
Epcot also has different festivals that run all year long. These festivals include additional food offerings from countries and cuisines different from the 11 countries already in the World Showcase. These festivals also include different things that decorate the existing countries like visiting while there is a festival going on because it adds a little more magic to the overall experience.
If you ever wished to travel the world but didn’t have the time or the money, Epcot’s World Showcase is the perfect place to immerse yourself in new cultures. It’s truly the only place you can be in Germany one minute and Japan the next, or drink a margarita in Mexico and then eat crepes in France.