Good morning from EPCOT! Today, we make our way around the World neighborhoods and World Showcase as we battle the holiday crowds for the news!

We started out day on the Monorail to get aerial views of construction (and crowds) down below.

Construction at Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind has been stagnant for quite a few days after paneling on the exterior facade was installed.

The future Connections Cafe is seeing some progress on the roofing and interior.

The most action by far is happening at Moana: Journey of Water where workers are in the trenches, literally.

Inside the park, Pin Traders has a new PhotoPass slideshow featuring Tiny Shot and Magic Zoom photos.

Just outside of Creations, three tents have popped up in the courtyard area.

Although two new themed digital tip boards were installed in the park, the boards near the Liquid Layer and The Seas with Nemo & Friends are still without frames.

Quite a few new pins released at Pin Traders today also, including a limited edition 2022 Happy New Year pin, a Star Wars blue and green milk sliding pin, and three Magical Comics pins.

For full details and pricing of all of the merchandise we found today, check out our daily merchandise roundup.

Over at the Imagination pavilion, scoring continues in various parts of the pavement that need to be replaced.

Inside The Land pavilion, a line builds for Awesome Planet, truly a rare sight.

Living with the Land was also down for quite some time today, along with Mission: Space causing some of the other attraction queues to build.

At The Seas with Nemo & Friends, new Nemo & Squirt plushes are making waves on the shelves.

Another uncommon sight, Turtle Talk had an extended line that backed up into the shop.

A large line was just out front, as guests waited for The Seas with Nemo & Friends attraction while numerous of the park’s attractions were out of Genie+ time slots or temporarily closed.

As we made our way into World Showcase, work is being done on one of the arms of the barges, that stuck out for most of the day.

Port of Entry had a Mickey, heart, and bow earring set.

Quite a bit of the Food & Wine Festival merchandise is still sitting on the shelves in the shop.

While Anna and Elsa have usually been meeting together in Norway, today only Elsa was out while Anna was planning for her wedding.

In the China pavilion, decorative sleeves have been put on the lighting rigs and trusses to be used for the New Year’s Eve dance parties.

A tent sits across from both the Germany and Italy pavilions.

The trusses in Italy also have had more lighting and decorative panel coverings added.

Smaller lighting rigs are in place in the back corner of The American Adventure.

In the Japan pavilion, the pavement in the front of Mitsukoshi has been replaced, while the side of the shop now sees scoring to make way for new concrete.

We made sure to wave to Jasmine in Morocco as we were passing through!

The UK pavilion has a “Practically Perfect” Mary Poppins metal water bottle featuring a few of our favorite penguins.

Trusses previously added to the back corner of the pavilion have planters covering their bases. New trusses have been added to the maze section as well.

Before heading out for the day, we made one last stop in the Canada pavilion where we saw a newer Canada mesh backpack featuring Donald, Mickey, and Goofy.

Thanks for following along and braving the long lines and crowds with us!

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The post Limited Lightning Lane Access, Pavilions Prepare For New Year’s Eve Parties, Holiday Crowds, & More: EPCOT Photo Report 12/28/21 appeared first on WDW News Today.