Epcot Flower and Garden Festival 2013 – Future World Topiaries, Butterfly Garden, Radiator Springs, Oz Playground, etc.

The Fab 5 + Daisy greet guests to the 20th anniversary of the Flower and Garden Festival.  Mickey’s on the grill, Goofy brought a birthday cake from Safeway, and Minnie is busy being fabulous.

Pluto’s got the dogs.

Ordinarily, I’d recommend letting the girl win, but I think Daisy is smart enough to let Donald win.

iPad.

The perfect camera.

We’ll do our best to put the Flower in the Flower and Garden Festival.

If you want a picture of the main topiary scene with fewer people around, head back around 2pm, when the fewest number of people are entering Epcot.  This is also a great time to ride Spaceship Earth.  This was taken around 9:45am, when a ton of people are still arriving.

If you’re entering Epcot with Annual Passes or non-RFID ticket media, head all the way to the left to find shorter lines.  With RFID tickets, the entrance furthest down on the right will have the shortest lines.

Monsters University added Sully, Mike’s roommate.  We’ll land the easyWDW chopper and take a closer look later.

Otherwise, welcome to March.

Ferb Fletcher has added a tree to his scene with Phineas and Perry.

10am wait times.  This is as good as it’s going to get until the second week in April.

The Butterfly House has a Tinker Bell theme this year.

We’ll get up to the World Showcase next.  Bigger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports7/prettyepcot.jpg.

Theoretically, there are butterflies in the butterfly house, though I didn’t see any fluttering around on the first day:

It’s worth a quick walkthrough, butterflies or not.

Back outside, I was amused by the two ladies stomping over flowers to get to a few dead leaves or buds.  Job security I guess.

Simba and friends make up the display on your way into World Showcase.

With Tinker Bell and friends taking over the Butterfly House, Radiator Springs invades the area in back of Mouse Gear.

Conservatively, I’d put it down as three times as good as Cars Land.

Mater needs help.

Your reward is a sticker.

Also in this area is the Garden Retreat, which consists of a picnic table in the sun.  And a few chairs.

You’ll also find one of several playground set up for the Festival.

And Lightning.

And Mater, of course.

I’d look for Flower and Garden to be called The Tow Mater Vegetables and Alcohol Festival next year. All the topiaries will be Mater.

There isn’t a whole lot to the playground, but it’s good for a photo op and five minutes of play.

The National Audubon Society returns with The Birds:

The birds hadn’t quite arrived yet, but give it a few weeks and you’ll hear more and more chirps.

The Fab 5 return outside the Festival Center.  Goofy roller blades in the summer.

Pluto and Donald are just chillin’ regardless of the time of year.

Buzz says hello in front of Mission: Space.

Universe of Energy looking pretty, even without anything added for the Festival.

On the opposite side of Epcot, outside the Imagination Pavilion, you’ll find the Oz Playground and Weather Wise Herbs and Vegetables.

Disney is promoting a Wizard of the Oz movie of some variety at the Festival with a playground.

A la Brave’s Highland Games, there are three activities for the kids.

Ring toss.

Pie (beanbag) toss.  And some “funny mirrors” that aren’t pictured.

This is out by the walkway that leads to World Showcase near the Imagination Pavilion.

These Dale Chihuly-esque flowers are very cool.

I didn’t think of Chihuly at first, but three people mentioned his name while they walked by.  Chihuly lives in the Seattle area, so a lot of his work is represented around neighboring cities.

Pretty amazing stuff created by Craig Mitchell Smith.  More information on the process (which is neat) is available here.

The playground looks to be mostly or completely new.  It’s probably going in the backyard of one of the Parks’ bloggers after the Festival.

It’s officially designed for 3 to 5 year olds.

Follow the yellow brick road!  Follow the yellow brick road!  Follower the yellow brick road!

The tent theming is particularly well done – this is Oz’s deflated hot air balloon.  Underneath the canopy are comfy chairs for parents to sit on while their kids play.

Overheard during the 10 seconds I stood here taking this picture:  “Oh, that movie is coming out.”  That bodes well for the box office.

Anyway, this is a fun little area for the kids.  If you’ve got one or more around the ages of two to seven, you probably want to head over here for a few minutes in the late morning or afternoon.  I’d expect them to close around dusk, or 6:30pm – 7pm.

Across from Oz is the somewhat less kid-friendly Weather Wise:

In Florida, our landscaping is mostly rocks and concrete.

Back up the main drag, we’re on our way to World Showcase.  You’ll run into the Pride Rock Fun Spot, which consists of two picnic tables and crayons.

I guess this is like the Kidcot mask you used to be able to decorate before Disney got Duffy crazy?

Otherwise, there are a couple things to color, probably while the cast member chats up mom and dad about the joys of “owning” Disney Vacation Club at Saratoga Springs resort.

As promised, a better look at Mike and Sully.

Larger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports7/prettydaybig.jpg.

In the next part, we’ll work our way around World Showcase for the Food and Wine part of the Flower and Garden Festival.