2012 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

From the Disney Parks blog...

Visit the Haiti: Garden of Many Colors Exhibit at the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival

posted on March 28th, 2012 by Charles Stovall, Public Relations, Manager

Well, the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, presented by HGTV, is in full bloom! And throughout the festival, we at the Disney Parks Blog will be bringing to your attention to some of the exciting new things for 2012.

One of the great horticulture additions this year is called Haiti: Garden of Many Colors. Sponsored by Haiti Originale, the spectacular garden exhibit showcases signature plants, flowers and crops of Haiti and offers information on the cultural heritage, sustainable art and artifacts of the beautiful island.

Sugar cane, mustard, thyme and curly leaf parsley are bounty from the Creole Garden. Guests can also find information on Recyclable Art, Haitian Arts and Crafts, Art in Motion and the Art of Haitian music; and they can purchase Haitian coffee (a major industry in Haiti) and crafts made by Haitian artists.

Located between the Germany Pavilion and the African Outpost in World Showcase at Epcot, the exhibit features a refreshment stand called Bwason Lakay, meaning “Haitian Refreshments” in Haitian Creole, which offers island libations – in both adult and non-alcoholic versions. And speaking of color, the Art in Motion storyboard gives insight into Haiti’s colorful tap-tap buses.

Haiti Originale was formed to help Haitians help themselves by supporting sustainable economic and social development through the promotion of quality Haitian-made products within Haiti and around the world. Their motto is “Par Haiti, Pour Haiti,” which means “By Haiti, For Haiti.”

Organizers of the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival have told us that the garden has been a huge success – both with our guests and our cast. At Walt Disney World Resort, we have a large population of cast from Haiti and that speak Haitian-Creole as a second language.

The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, presented by HGTV, runs until May 20. For more information on the festival, you can check out disneyworld.com/flower and continue to check back here for more updates.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/03/visit-the-haiti-garden-of-many-colors-exhibit-at-the-epcot-international-flower-garden-festival/

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

From the Disney Food blog...

Review: Epcot Haiti Drinks Booth (or “The Best Frozen Lemonade EVER”)

Mar 30th, 2012 by AJ.

At the 2012 Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, the Haiti: Garden of Many Colors display is a fun, new exhibit where guests can learn about Haitian culture.

Haiti Sign

We stopped by the beverage kiosk, which features Haitian rhums (rum) and liqueurs in delicious frozen cocktails along with other non-alcoholic options.

Personally, I think this addition is awesome. I love any time they add new food kiosks, but, I have to say, the yummy treats I tried were seriously rockin’. I can’t wait to tell you about ‘em! (Oh, and there’s a video of one of my favorite songs at the bottom of this post, too, so…just sayin’.)

An added plus? The booth area is even lighted — allowing for Happy Hour to continue long after the sun sets!

Atmosphere

The bright colors of the booth and surrounding decor made for a great, attention-grabbing display!

Haiti Booth Sign

Those of us who were at the 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival will remember a veeeeery similar-looking booth to this one! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Haiti Booth

No worries if the line is long; you can learn a little along the way!

Sugarcane Info in Line/Queue Area - click image for larger version

I loved the little seating area set up for guests as well. It’s always nice to find a shaded area to kick back and relax for a bit on your tour around the World!

Seating Area

Drinks

Yummo frozen goodies abound here at the booth. But, not ready for a frozen drink? Opt for a freshly brewed gourmet coffee — hot or over ice. Or try your brew with rum, or an orange, coffee, or coconut liqueur!

Menu - click image for larger version

You can also try Prestige Beer here if you wish!

Drinks and Mixers

I opted to try the Frozen Hibiscus Lemonade, but when I ordered, the cast member asked if I’d like to mix the two alcoholic frozen drinks! Um…SURE!

Making the Frozen Drinks

So he added a dollop of the coconut rhum frozen drink on top of the hibiscus lemonade that I’d ordered. The combo was delicious, but being a fan of sour drinks, I enjoyed the lemonade much more than the coconut! It was out of this world! Seriously the best frozen lemonade I’ve ever had. A sweet-tart-sour experience of wonderfulness on a hot day in Epcot.

Combo Coconut and Hibiscus Lemonade drinks

Though, perhaps the wonderfulness also had something to do with the fact that Starship was playing at the Flower Power concerts that night in the American Pavilion, and I could hear it from the Haiti booth. Who doesn’t love Starship!?! We totally built this city.

I also opted to try the non-alcoholic Mango Punch, which, admittedly, wasn’t as good as the lemonade. It was a bit too sweet for my taste; but if you’re a sweet drink fan, you’ll love it!

Mango Non-Alcoholic Drink

Overall

At $8.25 for the alcoholic frozen drinks and $4 for the non-alcoholic punch, these prices are generally in line with other frozen drinks in the park (and are actually cheaper than some — I’m looking at YOU, France slushies!). So I think the value is fine here, but if you’re having trouble making up your mind between the flavors, ask the cast members what their choices are!

I really like (naturally) the additional food kiosks that have started to make appearances during the Flower and Garden Festival. While you’re there, don’t forget to head into the Festival Center to check out the cafe there as well!

http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2012/03/30/review-epcot-haiti-drinks-booth-or-the-best-frozen-lemonade-ever/#more-51303

[Lou... 3,118]

Haiti, really. Not exactly the first place that comes to mind when I think of a tropical paradise.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

True. But from the looks of it, it should come to mind when one thinks of delicious drinks!

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

From the Touring Plans blog. Check out the link at the end for photos...

Gardens of the World Tour Review

by Lindsay DuBose on April 2, 2012

This year’s Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival is in full swing, and the park has never looked more gorgeous. What better way could there be to explore all the amazing displays and learn what it takes to put on this signature event than with a tour? Thankfully, the Gardens of the World Tour lets guests do just that!

Offered only during the Festival, Gardens of the World offers guests a unique opportunity to explore Epcot along with members of Disney’s Horticulture group. As the team responsible for bringing Epcot into bloom, the Horticulture tour guides are the perfect folks to share the ins and outs of maintaining the park’s landscaping during the Festival and throughout the year.

While I attended last year’s Flower & Garden Festival, this was my first time taking the two tours offered. The previously reviewed English Tea Garden Tour was a fun, free way to enjoy the Festival’s offerings. However, that quick tour is no match for the amount of information and access provided on Gardens of the World.

To start, tour guests met outside Epcot at Guest Relations at 9am. If you take this or any other tour, make sure you are early. For the first time in almost 20 tours, I was late. Somehow after arriving one minute late, it took over 15 minutes to finally catch up with the group. If you are ever late for a tour, immediately go to Guest Relations. Provided your tour allows late arrivals (some don’t), Guest Relations will find a Cast Member to escort you to meet up with the group.

By the time we found my group, they had already received name tags, pins, discussed the main entrance Fantasia topiaries, and made their way behind Spaceship Earth. Things were moving fast. I was handed a name tag and a headset. Almost all the paid tours use headsets to allow guests to hear despite their proximity to the guide and the volume of the crowds in the park. My tour had 21 guests, so I was very glad I could still keep up with what was being said despite trailing the group.

At the point I joined, the group was learning about how the giant peacock topiary behind Spaceship Earth had to be lowered earlier that week because it didn’t flow with the surrounding flower beds, which are supposed to represent the bird’s tail feathers. This was one of the examples of how Disney is constantly evaluating and updating displays throughout the Festival. Another example was the sand sculpture highlighting the new Chimpanzee nature film, which will be completely rebuilt several times throughout the festival as the sand is eroded.

From there we made our way through Future World East into the For The Birds and Pixie Hollow gardens. Much of our tour was spent learning about the details in to the special displays throughout the park. Even though I had visited Epcot during Flower & Garden before, I never realized just how many displays there are. I counted at least seven on the tour, not including the country-specific landscaping throughout World Showcase. This tour did a fantastic job of encouraging us to really explore all the beauty the Festival has to offer.

Next, we learned about the creation of the flower berms and floating baskets in the waterway leading up to World Showcase. We also visited Bambi’s Butterfly Garden, my favorite Flower & Garden Festival staple. Then we walked by the rose gardens and the sand sculpture before making our way into World Showcase.

While there was plenty to see in Future World, World Showcase took up the bulk of this 3 hour tour. Starting from Mexico, we visited each and every pavilion. We even got to enter the Showcase before it opened to regular guests. I’m a big proponent of taking early tours that allow for a private park experience. I spent as much time taking photos of empty pavilions as I did learning about horticulture.

One thing I didn’t realize until this tour, is that many of the flowers and displays for the festival are donated from outside parties, as well as other departments within Disney. Mexico’s orchids are provided by Animal Kingdom, which features orchids in its Oasis area. Many of the Mexico orchids are kept in pots and will go back to Animal Kingdom at the end of the Festival. The orchids that have been sewn into the palm trees will stay and may bloom a few more times before being removed.

Similarly, the Japan pavilion features a gorgeous display of bonsai trees. Each has been donated by a private owner to Disney. Our guide indicated that due to the delicate nature of bonsais, making sure these were returned in great condition is one of the most stressful tasks for the horticulture team.

Our group also learned about the process of creating topiaries for the festival versus building permanent topiaries elsewhere on property. If you have visited Topiary Production on the Backstage Magic tour, this part of the tour will be very redundant. I spent this part of the tour searching for the even the smallest sliver of shade. Fortunately, the headset let me stand far off without missing out on what the guides were saying.

Which reminds me: WEAR SUNSCREEN!!! I wore SPF 75 and still ended up with a terrible sunburn from this tour. Three hours of standing in direct sun is no joke. I spent much of the tour standing at a distance to be in the shade and even walked off at one point to get water. As a native Floridian, this was my first time getting a serious sunburn at Disney. If I were taking this tour again, I’d carry an umbrella to block the sun. Bringing a water bottle would be a wise idea as well. If it’s this bad in March, May is going to be brutal.

In the France Pavilion, we learned about how Disney constructs the hanging plant baskets. One of our guides works on the indoor plants at Magic Kingdom, including the hanging baskets in Crystal Palace. It never occurred to me how much work goes into choosing and maintaining the arrangements. Did you know that each of Epcot’s hanging baskets weighs up to 60 pounds? The larger the arrangement, the less likely it will dry out between daily waterings.

We wrapped up in Canada. After learning about the irrigation system used for the trees on Canada’s “mountain”, we got to go backstage to view the pavilion from the other side. While this backstage portion of the tour was very short, it was fantastic to see how the mountain is constructed with deep planters and a pipe-system for the water. Here we each received a copy of the 2012 Flower & Garden Festival poster in a large tube. These posters cost $19.95 at the Festival Center, so it was really a nice surprise for tour guests.

Aside from being preoccupied with potential dehydration and sun-poisoning, I learned a lot from this tour. Most of the guests were avid gardeners, many taking notes on the specific plants used throughout Epcot. We each received a card with contact information for the Horticulture group should we have any follow up questions. Both of our guides were excellent and clearly passionate about their jobs.

If you are even the slightest bit inclined to learn more about gardening techniques and the process for pulling off the Flower & Garden Festival, I definitely recommend this tour for you. Bring some water, wear sunscreen and walking shoes, carry an umbrella, and you’ll have a good time.

If listening to questions about mulching techniques isn’t up your alley, you might want to reconsider. I’m not a gardener, and (sun aside) I had a reasonably good time. However, if I were facing time or budget constraints, I would skip the tour and just enjoy the beauty of the festival on my own. If you want to experience more Epcot but aren’t into plants, the UnDISCOVERed Future World tour is a good alternative. If you want to focus on Flower & Garden but want less of a commitment, try the English Garden Tea Tour. Just be sure to go late in the day to avoid heat exhaustion!

The Gardens of the World tour is currently offered Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 9am through May 20, 2012. It costs $60 and requires separate park admission. Guests must be at least 16 years old to take the tour. A 15% discount is offered for AAA Members, Annual Passholders, and DVC Members. Disney VISA Cardholders are eligible for a 20% discount when booking with their Disney VISA. To book, call (407) WDW-TOUR (407-939-8687).

http://blog.touringp...ld-tour-review/