Thursday January 22nd 2026

On Wednesday I made my first visit to Walt Disney World of the year. I was blocked during the holidays because of my “cheap” pass level. The blackout ended on January 5th, but high crowd levels because of the Run Disney marathon followed by cold temperatures kept me away.

The International Festival of the Arts began while I was staying away. It is a favorite of mine. I had to get started visiting the festival at Epcot. It ends before the end of February. A lot of other people must have similar thoughts. It was very busy in the late afternoon and got heavier after dark.

I visited the majority of the art booths and made a complete circuit of the World Showcase. At the UK Pavilion I grabbed my usual Fish and Chips dinner and at the American Pavilion I caught the end of one of the Disney on Broadway shows. Many of the food booths that are open during other festivals are replaced with Art booths for this festival, but there are still plenty of food choices.

I am not sure there are as many Art kiosks this year. The booths that have offered statues and castings in previous years seemed to be missing. Other booths seemed to be in new locations with more display space. The displays of Broadway musical costumes, sets and paraphernalia was impressive as was the chalk art on the walkway to the World Showcase.

I’ll bw back for more visits over the next month.