EPCOT’s World Nature

24 August 2023 by Steve Bell

World Nature in Walt Disney World’s EPCOT is dedicated to understanding and preserving the beauty, awe, and balance of the natural world.

📍 EPCOT | World  Nature

This land includes The Land Pavilion and The Seas with Nemo & Friends Pavilion, as well as Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana.

Prior to EPCOT’s recent construction and reorganization of the front half of the park, the World Nature section of EPCOT was part of Future World. Future World has now been divided into 3 new neighborhoods or “Worlds” to match the naming convention of World Showcase. The Worlds that once comprised the whole of Future World are: World Celebration, World Discovery, and World Nature.

The lower half (everything not in World Showcase) used to be Future World

World Nature encompasses the western portion of the old Future World. The green area in the pic above.

The Land Pavilion

The Land Pavilion is dedicated to human interaction with the Earth, focusing on agriculture, conservation, and travel. It explores how humans can both use the land for their benefit and preserve it.

The pavilion in all indoors affording some great air-conditioning during the Florida summer. From the single entrance on the second floor of the building you’ll walk around either side of the perimeter walkway  towards the rear of the building to descend to the first floor that holds most of the pavilion’s guest areas. As you walk towards the rear to use the stairs, escalator, or elevator the walkway overlooks the central first floor and has views to the ceiling and beautiful baloons far above.

The Land Pavilion Entrance

Attractions

Soarin’ Around the World  – Fly over scenic world destinations on this hang-glider simulator. Each section of this huge simulator has three long rows of seats. You will strap into your seat and then be lifted up into the air where you will be suspended in front of a huge wide screen upon which the flyover scenes are displayed. Try to notice the scents that accompany many of the scenes! Your seat will move and sway in tune with the video to strengthen the feeling of flying.

Living with the Land – This boat ride takes you on a tour of greenhouses and other methods of food production. You will tour several greenhouses with different environments like tropical and temperate and see methods of efficiently raising crops like hydroponics and farm raised fish. You will even see some Mickey shaped produce.

Awesome Planet – A 4D film about the Earth’s biomes and the perils of climate change, with narration by Ty Burrell who plays Phil Dunphy on the ABC sitcom Modern Family. The first part of this film is a beautiful visual tour of the planet earth, but the second half devolves into man-made global warming propaganda and shaming. Located on the second floor.

Behind the Seeds Tour – For an extra fee, an approximately 1 hour long tour of the research facility that explains what is being researched, and how the research is conducted.

Dining

The Garden Grill – D $$$ – Table Service – Chip n’ Dale’s Harvest Feast offers an all you care to enjoy meal served family style on platters, plus character dining with: Mickey, Chip and Dale, and Pluto. Enjoy char-grilled filet of beef, roasted turkey breast with stuffing and gravy, sustainable fish of the day. Plus, garden vegetables, sweet potato fries, buttermilk mashed potatoes, rice pilaf, and home-style macaroni & cheese. Located on the second floor.

Sunshine Seasons – BLD $ – Quick Service – Seasonal soups, salads, sandwiches, and desserts.

Sunshine Seasons Restaurant

Sunshine Seasons

Shopping

Soarin’ Tour Desk – A desk, located to the left of the entrance to Soarin’, where Guests may sign up for the Behind the Seeds Greenhouse Tour, which takes place in the greenhouse section of the Living With The Land attraction. Guests may also purchase Mickey’s Mini Gardens, tiny plants produced through tissue culture in nutrient gel and packaged in sterile tubes.

Green Thumb Emporium – A small merchandise area, located across from the Soarin’ Tour Desk. A small assortment of Soarin’ T-shirts and pins, along with disposable cameras and Mickey’s Mini Gardens are available for purchase. Note that this shop has taken on the name of the former, much larger, shop at The Land which occupied the same approximate area.

The Seas Pavilion

The Seas with Nemo and Friends Pavilion (formerly The Living Seas) is themed as an oceanic exploration base called SeaBase, with several exhibits devoted to the study of the oceans. The building includes a 5.7 million gallon aquarium. The aquarium is the second-largest aquarium in the U.S. and the sixth-largest in the world. In the main exhibit area guests can view a plethora of sea life and interact with various multimedia displays.

The Living Seas opened in 1986 and was re-themed in 2006 as The Seas with Nemo & Friends after the film Finding Nemo.

You’ll enter the entirely indoor pavilion via a short ride on The Seas with Nemo and Friends attraction and be dropped off at Sea Base.

Alternately, you can enter through the gift shop which is also the exit on the left side of the building.

Attractions

Sea Base – is the viewing area of the large aquarium. Guests can view many sea creatures in the main tank, including a pod of three common bottlenose dolphins, sand tiger sharks, naso tang, threadfin butterflyfish, cowtail stingray, orange-lined triggerfish, sandbar sharks, bowmouth guitarfish, bonnethead sharks, atlantic tarpon, shovelnose guitarfish, a green sea turtle, a blacknose shark, and a zebra shark.

A smaller aquarium features a pair of rescued West Indian manatees. Other small tanks feature a variety of species from moray eels to seahorses, and other species that cannot interact with divers or other fish in the main tank.

The Seas with Nemo and Friends (Lightning Lane Multi Pass) – Ride your ClamMobile and have fun under the sea with the cast of Finding Nemo. The clam-mobiles are 2+ person continuous feed ride vehicles. After you board you will meet Mr. Ray and his class on a field trip and learn that Nemo has wandered off and you must find him. The ride deposits you in a large lofted two-story area where some of the walls are huge aquarium tanks. Explore all types of interactive exhibits all about life under the sea.The ride goes through a tunnel through the bottom of the large aquarium tank. The ride originally provided spectacular views of the tank and its inhabitants when the pavilion was The Living Seas, but during the remodel, a good portion of the windows were covered.

The Seas with Nemo and Friends

Turtle Talk with Crush (Lightning Lane Multi Pass) – Engage in real-time questions and answers with Crush in this interactive show. This interactive show is the headliner in the Seas with Nemo and Friends. It features a computer-animated version of Crush the surfer dude turtle from Finding Nemo. He has 10-minute conversations with his visitors and interacts personally with the audience. Be sure to do this before you leave Nemo and Friends.

Turtle Talk with Crush

Dining

Coral Reef Restaurant – LD $$ – Table service – Seafood steaks, and more. Enjoy watching the Living Seas aquarium while dining. One entire wall of the restaurant consists of a glass window that is eight inches thick and that provides a view into an aquarium and the table seating is tiered up from the wall to provide views to all diners.

Shopping

No major shops. There is a gift shop as you exit.

Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana

Journey of Water, inspired by the hit Walt Disney Animation Studios film Moana, is the first Walt Disney World Resort theme park experience featuring Moana. This lush exploration trail will invite guests to meet and play with magical, living water. Water will have a personality of its own, helping guests learn about the importance of the natural water cycle how to protect it in a fun and engaging way.

Journey of Water is a garden featuring interactive fountains and other water features leading from the current Innoventions plaza (replacing much of Innoventions West) down to The Seas Pavilion.

Anchored by a massive topiary of Te Fiti, Journey of Water serves as a whimsical exploration of the water cycle and how it sustains our world.

Get Your EPCOT Bearings (what’s next to what?):

World Nature | World Celebration | World Discovery

Entry to World Showcase (between Canada and Mexico)

Canada | Mexico

• World Celebration
• World Discovery
• World Nature
• World Showcase
  • Mexico Pavilion
  • Norway Pavilion
  • China Pavilion
  • The Outpost
  • Germany Pavilion
  • Italy Pavilion
  • American Adventure Pavilion
  • Japan Pavilion
  • Morocco Pavilion
  • France Pavilion
  • International Gateway
  • United Kingdom Pavilion
  • Canada Pavilion

• Disney World Theme Park Overview
• Magic Kingdom
• EPCOT
• Disney's Hollywood Studios
• Disney's Animal Kingdom

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