We Were NOT Expecting These Opening Day EPCOT Festival of the Holidays CROWDS

By Kendall Waltz Leave a Comment

There’s just something about Disney World during the holidays that makes me want to throw on a Mickey Santa hat and run straight to the parks. One of the best parts is the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays!

The Festival of the Holidays has arrived!

This festival runs from November 28th to December 30th (so you’ll want to get over there quick), and we love to come on opening day so we can try all the food, check out the entertainment, and more, so you can have all the details to have the best visit ever. Seems like other people had the same idea because we got a look at some major crowds in EPCOT.

Opening day is usually busy, especially for shorter festivals, when people might have limited time to visit.

The holiday activities continue in Disney World! Today we are exploring 2025 Festival of the Holidays at Epcot 🤩✨🎄 pic.twitter.com/4iMQvNS1r3

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) November 28, 2025

When we walked in, we were greeted by larger groups than we even expected, ready to rope drop.

The crowds were ready!

Of course, the Creations Shop, where the limited edition merchandise is, had a huge line. People love to go early so they can make sure the souvenirs they want don’t sell out.

Festival Merchandise

Inside was pretty busy, too.

Hey Figment

Most food booths open at 11:00 AM, and some people even lined up to get their hands on the new food as soon as they could. Okay, we were definitely included with those people.

The season is in full swing.

It’s always pretty fun to look at the wait times across different attractions, too. The wait times looked surprisingly low because everyone was likely in line for the special entertainment and food offerings, though — of course — Frozen Ever After, Test Track, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind had their usual large waits by 9:30 AM EST (likely not helped by Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure being temporarily closed early in the day.

Wait Times

We’re bringing you all the details for EPCOT Festival of the Holidays, so make sure you keep following Disney Food Blog for more!

FULL MENUS ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2025 EPCOT FESTIVAL OF THE HOLIDAYS

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What’s your favorite EPCOT festival? Tell us in the comments.