Welcome back, DFB friends! We’re here with another What’s New at EPCOT!

And, we’ve got plenty of construction, food, merchandise and crowd updates to share with you! So, what are you waiting for? Let’s dive right on in!

EPCOT Construction Update

Now that Christmas is over, the decorations have started to come down in EPCOT (we’ll miss you!). We noticed that the Christmas tree has been removed from the World Showcase Plaza, but the trees in the pavilion were still up during our visit.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, but we’ll see you in November, EPCOT tree!

Take a look at the missing Christmas decorations around Disney World!

EPCOT Merchandise Update

World Traveler Shop

The one merchandise update we noticed was from World Traveler Shop, and it was a bit of a bizarre one! We noticed rogue DISNEYLAND merchandise for sale!

2021 merchandise is currently for sale at this location, and we spotted a Disneyland 2021 license plate cover for sale along with everything else!

Looking to stock up on 2021 merchandise ahead of your upcoming trip? See how you can buy them online ahead of time here!

EPCOT Food Update

Sunshine Seasons

As a way to celebrate the holiday, we found a few New Year’s Eve-themed treats across EPCOT! At Sunshine Seasons, we tasted the New Year’s Eve Stroke of Midnight Dessert

The Stroke of Midnight Dessert is German chocolate chiffon cake and milk chocolate mousse filled with blackberry puree. It’s topped with a chocolate clock, dusted with edible glitter, and decorated with fondant circles.

Cast Members went the EXTRA MILE and even painted Roman numerals on the plate! This decadent dessert was available for $5.99! Head over to the Land Pavilion and grab one before the clock strikes twelve!

Read our full review of the Stroke of Midnight Dessert here!

Via Napoli

The line for Via Napoli line was LONG right around 12:30pm yesterday. The pizza window was open at the time. Check out a video of the line below!

Here’s the line for Via Napoli 🍕 pic.twitter.com/GSOyoQUdHy

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) December 31, 2020

We love a slice of pizza as much as the next person, but you would have definitely needed to pack your patience if you wanted some fresh ‘za on New Year’s Eve in EPCOT!

Does Via Napoli have the BEST pizza in Disney World? Read our thoughts here!

Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie

We didn’t spot any New Year’s Eve specials at Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie in the France Pavilion, but we did notice that the menu board had a little “Happy New Year” greeting in the bottom corner of the screen!

One of our 2021 Resolutions is to definitely stop by Les Halles more frequently!

Click here to see what it’s like to visit Les Halles since the parks reopened!

Le Marche de Noel Booth

One of our favorite food and drink finds at EPCOT on our recent trip was served in a special sphere glass for one night only! The drink itself was the Parisian Cosmo Cocktail (which we’ve enjoyed in slush form in the past!).

This was definitely the drink of the evening, as we spotted guests all around the France and Morocco Pavilions with these sphere glasses!

They retailed for $16 and included a little glow cube! This was definitely one of the more festive drinks we’ve seen in celebration of New Year’s!

Click here to read about a Raspberry Dole Whip Float that would definitely qualify as our New Year’s kiss.

EPCOT Crowd Update

And then there were those New Year’s Eve crowds! Under normal circumstances, New Year’s Eve is by far one of the busiest evenings in Disney World, and EPCOT is typically one of the busiest parks right after Magic Kingdom! But with no fireworks and the parks closing well before midnight, we had wondered what crowds would look like.

As what seems to be the norm these days, there were times we saw relatively light crowds in the parks, but then we would turn the corner and see tons of people! 

In World Showcase, the standby queue for Frozen Forever After stretched all the way back through the China  Pavilion and even in to the Africa Outpost area!

Frozen Ever After line is 80 minutes and the line ends by the Africa Outpost. pic.twitter.com/2HyvB2elj7

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) December 31, 2020

The queue for Test Track was consistent all day long, still wrapping around to the Simporium twenty-five minutes prior to park closing. The wait time was sixty minutes!

Take a full look at the New Year’s Eve crowds that we saw here!

Well, that’s all for this What’s New at EPCOT! We’ll catch you next time for more merchandise, construction, crowd, and food updates! And, if you have any questions about how your 2021 Disney vacation might look different, let us know so we can help you find the answers.