What do you get when you put three (young) adults in Orlando and tell them to pick a park to visit for one day? You get an itinerary of “drinking around the world” in Walt Disney World’s Epcot park! Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way early…we did NOT end up getting a drink in every Epcot country. However, we had a blast nonetheless and I can still share my list of what we had initially planned to drink. We ended up not ordering an alcoholic beverage at most countries for a variety of reasons: the drinks are pricey (around $10-12 per beer and $14-22 per cocktail/frozen drink), most drinks were just too sweet and we were sugar’ed out, and we also wanted to spend more time crossing some rides and attractions off our list since we only had one day in the park!

Ride Popular Attractions Early

Since we stayed at a participating resort, we enjoyed the benefit of early access to the park. “Early Access” is only 30 minutes of park time before the official open time, but it does make a difference. Upon entry we took our mandatory selfies with the famous Epcot globe and then headed over to the “holding zone,” not at all unlike a herd of cattle. At 9:30am (Epcot doesn’t open officially until 10:00am), the literal rope was dropped and the crowd surged forward. Everyone has a slightly different strategy, but the general idea is to run to one of the rides notorious for long lines later in the day. As you know from our experience riding ALL of the rides at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure (Orlando’s other mega-themeparks), strategy and timing are key to maximizing your time in crowded parks. At this time, those popular rides in Epcot include Frozen Ever After in Norway, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in France, Test Track in World Discovery, and Soarin’ Around The World in World Nature.

We chose to tackle Soarin’ first and it was amazing, as expected. Despite being over 15 years old, Soarin’ continues to amaze with its hang-gliding flight across the globe simulated with a gigantic screen and levitating tilting feet-dangling seats. I remember being absolutely mesmerized by this ride over ten years ago and it was still just as wonderful in present day.

Test Track came next. It takes you through a fun adventure of testing prototype cars and finishes with a 60mph race to the end. In addition to long lines, Test Track is known for frequent break downs and actually had to close early the day we visited Epcot, so maybe try to hit Test Track early in your day to beat the inevitable delays.

Right next to Test Track was our next target: Mission Space. If part of your day at Epcot involves drinking around the world, I HIGHLY recommend riding Mission Space when you’re still sober… this ride simulates the space training astronauts go through and can be so nauseating that they provide barf bags preemptively. Mission Space creates G-force by swinging the cars you’re encased in in circles, while tilting you back and forth to change the direction of the force. It can be very disorienting (but also quite fun) and I recommend making sure you are not drunk and not dehydrated before riding.

With some of the bigger Epcot rides checked off, it was time for us to venture off from World Celebration to World Stage, where the various Epcot countries lay waiting. World Showcase surrounds the central pool and can be explored either clockwise starting from Mexico or counterclockwise starting from Canada. Be sure to click the links to access the menus offered by the various restaurants and bars!

Mexico

We found the restaurant bar La Cava del Tequila nestled inside an indoor area housing a Mexican inspired marketplace, the San Angel Inn Restaurant, and the Gran Fiesta Tour slow boat ride. This was our first glimpse of the stunningly immersive quality that Disney is known for. I felt like I was transported to the set of Coco! La Cava del Tequila was our first stop on our journey of Drinking Around The World in Epcot. We ordered the Black Magic margarita ($22), a mezcal blackberry frozen margarita. It was a tad on the sweet side, but had good mezcal in both quality and quantity.

Norway

Norway is home to the Frozen Ever After ride, notorious for long wait times. We decided to pass on the then current 65-minute line, with the hopes that we would have time to return to it later. (Spoiler alert: the line continued to get longer and longer, and no, we sadly did not have time to come back to ride Frozen.) In need of food, we stopped by the Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe, but were disappointed to see they offered exclusively sweet snacks and treats. We settled on an eplekake ($5, apple cake) and a lefse ($3, potato flatbread rolled with butter and cinnamon sugar), Both were pleasantly surprisingly light and not cloyingly sweet.

The alcohol options in Norway were not great nor plentiful- we found spiked coffee beverages in the cafe and choices of two beers both in the cafe and from a beverage street cart. The beers aren’t particularly notable (they did have “Nordic draft beer” options of Aass Pilsner and two Einstok beers), so we decided to skip the drink from Norway.

China

China’s contribution to our Epcot Drinking Around The World adventure was the mango gingerita (with both vodka and light rum) ($11) from China’s Joy of Tea. It was sparkly and boozier than expected, in a good way. Food offerings in China include the Lotus Blossom Cafe (more casual) and the Nine Dragons Restaurant (slightly more formal setting), both serving Chinese-American food. We also watched the Circle-Vision 360 degree film, Reflections of China, which is a good break from the sun but doesn’t offer any seats to rest your legs.

Germany

Italy

Unfortunately, the Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar in Epcot’s Italy was not open until 3pm the day we visited, and we just didn’t have that much time to spare. Epcot’s Italy section had more food than drink— grab some pizza at Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria, or more sit-down Italian American fare at Tutto Gusto or Tutto Italia Ristorante. The limoncello cocktail served at the street cart outdoors was tempting, but a sickly sweet shot didn’t sound very good for our gradually increasing headaches. Instead, we continued on to…

The American Adventure

Japan

Morocco

Morocco in Epcot was… just beautiful. The setting was immersive and intricately decorated, colorful yet classy, and I loved just wandering and poking around. Food offerings in Morocco looked delicious, from the small plates at Spice Road Table to baklava and other baked sweets at Oasis Sweets & Sips to kebabs at Tangierine Cafe. I wish we had more time to absorb Morocco. The beverage I would have ordered was the Iced Mint Tea ($14.50, spiked with gin) or the Moroccan Mule ($15.50, made with Figenza Fig Vodka) from Spice Road Table, but we deferred this one as we were rushing off to…

France

Home of Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure! This ride is the other ride in World Showcase notorious for exceedingly long wait times and we knew we had to ride at least either this one or Frozen. There is unfortunately no single rider line for either attraction . We bit the bullet and ended up waiting a bit over one hour for Remy’s. The wait time is worth it to experience the high quality ride, but I doubt I’d wait that long for a second time. The ride is a trackless 4D dark ride, transforming you into Remy’s rat friends zooming around the kitchen. It’s full of fun, delicious smells, sprays of water, and a sense of awe at the technology and labor intensive sets created for this ride.

France is known for its slushes particularly during Drinking Around The World Epcot expeditions. We couldn’t bring ourselves to shell out the $15-20 for an alcoholic slush that would probably be, like most frozen cocktails, quite sweet. But if you go for it yourself, I’ve read that the Grand Marnier Slush from Les Vins des Chefs de France is the way to go. Food feels fancy in Epcot’s France, but that might be because the menu entrees are written in French… go for fancy-ish French cuisine at Chefs de France ($30-$40 entrees or a $68 prix fixe dinner) or go all out tres-fancy with a $195 per adult “Prix Fixe Menu Degustation” at Monsieur Paul. If those prices ruin your appetite (I’m often in this boat myself!), head toward Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie for still-very-decadent sounding sandwiches, quiches, bread bowl bisques, and baked goodies for <$10.

United Kingdom

We were honestly getting pretty tired and dehydrated by this point. Popular stops in Epcot’s UK for food and grub include the Yorkshire County Fish Shop and the Rose and Crown Pub. We refueled on poutine (and water cups). Next time I return to Epcot, I’ll be sure to circle the World Showcase in the counter-clockwise direction to spend more time and belly room on this side! The Rose and Crown Pub offers a fun selection of English beers, pub blends of various beers and ciders, and even whiskey flights!

Canada

If you started in Mexico, you will end your Epcot Drinking Around the World journey here in Canada with a beer, maple popcorn from the very originally named Popcorn in Canada, and maybe even a surf-and-turf dinner at Le Cellier Steakhouse. Canada also has its own circle-vision 360 degree film, Canada Far And Wide.

As you can see, we definitely did not order a drink in each of Epcot’s countries, although we did “travel” around the world of Epcot and had a wonderful time. The cocktails are the more unique way to drink around the world, but most of them were too sugary for our tastes. Beers are always a good less sweet option, but the only country in which we were actually excited to drink unique beers in was Germany. The other limiting factor is cost, and having a drink in every country in Epcot will obviously add up, but this is to be expected in Disney World. I honestly had just as much fun “window shopping” during our Drink Around The World experience as I did actually imbibing them. No matter how many drinks you actually ingest, you’ll enjoy your time around the world in Epcot!

Tips for your Epcot Drinking Around the World experience:

• Bring some friends to split the libations with. This way, you can try more without going over your limit, and someone else can finish the drinks that aren’t quite your preference.
• Make sure you eat something, and drink plenty of water. Disney World parks allow guests to bring outside food (provided nothing needs refrigeration or processing/heating) as well as outside non-alcoholic beverages. They also sell water bottles for around $3.50, but you can request a free cup of ice (tap) water at the restaurants.
• You can review the food and drink menu at every single Disney World restaurant and bar! This resource is on the official Disney World website, under the “Things To Do” tab. Choose to plan ahead or be surprised, either way works. I’ve linked the mentioned restaurants to their official Disney sites to make it easy to access the menus!
• Don’t feel compelled to drink every drink just to say you did. It’s your vacation (and your wallet)! Just have fun!

Come visit Disney World’s Epcot to see what you’d like to Drink Around The World! Whether you have 1 drink, 5 drinks, all 11, or even more— you’ll enjoy the sights and classic Disney happiness.