Limited Lightning Lane Access, Pavilions Prepare For New Year’s Eve Parties, Holiday Crowds, & More: EPCOT Photo Report 12/28/21

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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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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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