A few months ago, my sister and I formed teams of 2 and completed a Genie+ vs non-Genie+ challenge! You can read all about that here! I wanted to replicate the challenge at another park, so this time I tried it at Epcot!

The Players & A Quick Rundown

For this particular game, we had two players going head to head: myself, and Liz, from lizdoesdisneyandbeyond on Instagram! We ran the challenge on Saturday, July 9, 2022, and rope dropped the park at 8:30am. We weren’t sure exactly what ending time we would have, but we ended up choosing 3:30pm as our ending time partway through the day. Epcot didn’t have any festivals going on that day; one of the rare days where we experienced “Diet Epcot”!

Liz was testing Genie+, and I was relegated to using standby. I did, however, secure a boarding group for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. I also elected to do standby for Test Track instead of the Single Rider queue. My day was built around my return time for Cosmic Rewind. I secured boarding group 37 which had a return time fairly early on in the day, so I spent my morning in the front half of the park. Meanwhile, Liz’s day was built around her Genie+ return times. She secured an awesome return time for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, so she spent her morning in World Showcase. We didn’t meet up again until the game had ended!

More than Just Rides

Epcot has a lot to offer, more than just rides. There’s a wide variety of entertainment, food, even small museum exhibits to walk through. Accordingly, there are a number of ways to score points in this game! Players can score points for meeting characters, visiting the museum exhibits, watching shows or entertainment, and even snacking around World Showcase! That means there are a LOT of different strategies players can follow in order to get points.

Touring Epcot at Lightspeed!

Here’s a breakdown of how each team spent their day:

CJ – Team Cheapo

I kept track of the time I waited in line, and I also noted the posted wait times (where applicable), noted in parentheses below!

1. Test Track – 8:31-8:46am (30 min)
2. Mission: SPACE Green side – 9:00-9:12am (5 min)
3. Advanced Training Lab
4. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – 9:36-10:17am (Group 37)
5. Club Cool
6. Spaceship Earth – 10:31-10:36am (5 min)
7. Snack at UK Pavilion
8. Visit Palais du Cinema at France Pavilion – 11:17am
9. Beauty & The Beast Sing-Along – 11:20am showing
10. Snack at France Pavilion
11. Meet Belle in France – 12:12pm
12. Snack at Morocco Pavilion
13. Visit Gallery of Arts & History at Morocco Pavilion – 12:18pm
14. Visit Bijutsu-kan Gallery at Japan Pavilion – 12:30pm
15. Snack at Japan Pavilion
16. Visit American Heritage Gallery – 12:40pm
17. Visit House of the Whispering Willows at the China Pavilion – 12:50pm
18. Visit Stave Church Gallery at the Norway Pavilion – 12:54pm
19. Meet Anna & Elsa at Royal Summerhaus – 12:55-1:12pm (10 min)
20. Visit Mexico Folk Art Gallery at the Mexico Pavilion – 1:15pm
21. Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 1:18-1:23pm
22. Meet a Favorite Pal at Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival – 1:40-1:44pm
23. Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival – 1:45pm Show
24. Journey Into Imagination with Figment – 2:10-2:17pm (5 min)
25. Visit ImageWorks “What If” Labs & Participate in One Activity – 2:26pm
26. Meet Vanellope inside ImageWorks – 2:35pm
27. Living with the Land – 2:39pm-2:43pm (10 min)
28. Awesome Planet – 3:05pm showing
29. Bruce’s Shark World – 3:22pm
30. Visit Aquarium at the Seas Pavilion – 3:25pm

This brings me to a total of… 60 points!

Liz – Team Genie+

Liz didn’t take extensive notes on time waiting, but here’s the order of rides that she did as well as countries she visited for a snack!

1. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
2. Snack at France Pavilion
3. Meet Mulan in China
4. Reflections of China
5. Meet Anna & Elsa at Royal Summerhaus
6. Frozen Ever After
7. Snack at Norway Pavilion
8. Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
9. Soarin’ Around the World
10. Living with the Land
11. Awesome Planet
12. Journey into Imagination with Figment
13. Visit ImageWorks “What If” Labs & Participate in One Activity
14. Meet Vanellope inside ImageWorks
15. Snack at Mexico Pavilion
16. Voices of Liberty

This brings Liz to a total of… 43 points!

Final Thoughts

As we can see, I was able to do a lot more, most notably the little museum walk-throughs and a couple additional characters. On the other hand, Liz rode two heavy-hitter rides that I wasn’t able to get to: Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After, both of which had 60+ minute waits throughout the day. Had I bypassed Test Track, I probably would have been able to do one of these, but not both, and then I would have been faced with a long wait at Test Track later on. Or, if rain was expected later in the day, I was faced with the possibility of Test Track going down (since it’s outdoors, it has trouble in the rain). Liz was also able to experience Soarin’ Around the World! This ride typically has 30-60 minute waits throughout the day, with wait times dropping off later on in the afternoon and evenings except during busy seasons.

We both got plenty of snacks, experienced entertainment & shows, did a good amount of rides (albeit different rides), and saw characters. The difference in our scores boils down to the walk-through exhibits, and I was able to accomplish one or two extra snacks/attractions. I think this goes to show that Epcot isn’t just about riding rides! There really is a LOT to do in this park, and when we looked over our checklists, there was still a lot left unchecked from both of our lists. We could have spent the rest of the day there, and probably not have finished the entire list. It was fun to compare our days, and we both found things that we hadn’t done at Epcot before, which was pretty cool to experience as seasoned, local parkgoers!

Ready to Take on the Challenge?

So, how much can you experience in a single day at Epcot? You can try out the challenge for yourself by downloading the PDF document below! You can try it against another team, try to beat our scores, or try it again, and again, and again, going for a high score against yourself! Make sure to come back and let me know how you did.