I Conquered the Challenging Disney World Bar Crawl: Sipping My Way Through Eleven Countries!

WITH my Minnie Mouse ears on, I’m stood in an Italian piazza with a glass of Prosecco in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other.

My friend has a pint of German beer and we click glasses to raise a toast in the Florida sun. It’s all very confusing.

Helen starts her pub crawl around the EPCOT World ShowcaseCredit: Helen Wright EPCOT at Walt Disney World is a favourite park for adults with no kids due to its food and drink optionsCredit: Getty The international pavilions are set around a huge lake at EPCOTCredit: Helen Wright

When it comes to entertainment and attractions, often raise the bar, but a new drinking game started by Disney World fans has created a new – rather boozy – way to enjoy one of the Florida theme parks.

The most magical bar crawl on Earth takes place at theme park, part of Walt Disney World.

It’s been dubbed ‘drinking around the world’ and has almost become an attraction in itself for .

EPCOT is themed around future innovations and world community and there’s a huge lake surrounded by 11 pavilions representing different countries from around the globe.

Here, you can experience different cultures, with attractions, crafts, food and drinks from countries , Norway, Morocco and Mexico.

With each pavilion serving traditional from their own country, it wasn’t long before fans began taking on the challenge to sample food and cocktails from each one as they explore the EPCOT park.

However, with from Mexico, a whisky-based Ottawa Apple from Canada and a vodka-laden Canto Loopy from China, it doesn’t take long to get a bit tipsy.

Plus, at between £12 and £21 per cocktail, then tax and tip on top, it’s not the cheapest way to spend the day.

However, the challenge is a lot of fun and on a sunny day, it’s a very chilled-out way to relax and enjoy the beautiful EPCOT park without the hustle to get on .

However, this boozy bar crawl is not for the faint hearted. Big cups and generous pours mean it’s easy to get drunk quickly.

Theme park staff and security and behaving badly, so don’t go overboard. It’s worth nothing there are non-alcoholic options available too.

Since each pavilion also serves local foods, it’s a good idea to sample a snack at each place too.

If you’re on a family holiday, though, it’s fair to say your kids would probably rather than stop for a frozen daiquiri.

So, it’s usually couples or friendship groups visiting without children who indulge in all 11 country-themed tipples.

As a Disney expert who has visited the Disney parks over 55 times, I have never managed to drink at every spot around the world in one day – with the most I could manage being just eight of the 11 pavilions.

However, recently my friend Marcus and I attempted to do all 11 by sharing a drink at each place to make it more affordable and, most importantly, less intoxicating!

We were in Orlando for work and decided to go to and take on the challenge.

Helen and friend, Marcus, take on the Disney bar crawl challengeCredit: Helen Wright

We tried ‘drinking around the world’ at Disney

We headed to the at lunchtime, starting in the Mexico Pavilion where we grabbed some tacos and our first cocktail of the day – a margarita from Mexico.

The Choza de Margarita bar has a huge list of different margarita flavours, with the cult favourite being the avocado margarita.

However, my personal recommendation is the Blood Orange (£14). Fresh, fruity and dangerously drinkable!

The Mexico pavilion is a great place to start around midday, as Mexican snacks like make for a great lunch and there is an outdoor terrace with views over the lake.

I could very easily have stayed all afternoon, sampling some of the other marg flavours as well as Picantes and Palomas but, to stay on track – and on my feet – after a while we set off to pavilion number two: Canada

The didn’t have as much atmosphere as Mexico, so we didn’t end up staying for long, stopping off just to pick up our next drink – which is actually one of my favourites.

If you like your cocktails sweet, the Ottawa Apple (£12.50,) is a hit.

This iced cocktail is made with Canadian Whisky, Maple, Apple Infusion, and Cranberry Juice and despite being full of ice, is like a warm hug.

You actually pick this up from a popcorn kiosk, so we also grabbed a box of the moorish Maple Popcorn (£5) to snack on as we strolled over to the next stop.

If you want to hang around, there is a lot of . You can grab a bench along the water’s edge and soak up the view.

Our next stop is the United Kingdom pavilion, which is very funny for Brits visiting Walt Disney World.

There are storybook ‘British’ streets, red phone boxes and cute little English rose gardens.

For those who love we bumped into Winnie the Pooh and Tigger here too.

The top spot is the British pub, Rose and Crown. Inside really does feel like the boozer down the road, – just a lot cleaner and with no fruit machines.

The Ottowa Apple at the Canadian Pavilion in EPCOTCredit: Helen Wright Helen was transported back home by the red post boxesCredit: Helen Wright

This is one of the most popular spots for Disney guests – especially those ‘drinking around the world’.

It’s one of the only to get a proper British pint and there is always a line. Probably because more than 800,000 Brits visit Orlando every year.

One of the best things about the World Showcase at EPCOT is that each pavilion has a team of staff from that country.

Marcus and I got chatting to the bartender, who was originally from

If you’re really missing home and you feel hungry, you can order traditional Fish and Chips here too and tables were packed with people tucking in.

For me, it could never be the though.

Marcus sampled the Snake Bite Imperial Pint for £9.50, which is half cider and lager and brought back memories of drinking in the Student Union.

, after this we moved on to one of my favourite pavilions, France.

The France pavilion is huge, with a popular attraction, Ratatouille, and lots of cute shops selling very French things, like perfume, macarons and pastries.

But, of course, we headed straight to the Les Vins de Chefs de France stand, for a fan-favourite Grand Marnier Orange Slush (£11.50).

This is a proper boozy slushie made with Grand Marnier, Rum, orange vodka and orange Juice.

The queue is always so long for this drink, but that’s probably a good thing since it’s the most delicious, cold refreshment, which doesn’t feel at all boozy.

The 20-minute wait means you probably won’t keep going back for more and end up very sloshed in France, with seven pavilions still to go.

Picking ours up, we nabbed a spot in the sun next to the Beauty and the Beast garden and also picked up a box of macarons from the Boulangerie Patisserie as a sweet treat to go with it.

The Canto Loopy cocktail in the China Pavilion at EPCOTCredit: Helen Wright EPCOT has some beautiful gardens and places to sit and enjoy a drinkCredit: Helen Wright

Morocco, Japan and the American Adventure pavilion were up next.

Japan also has a great alcoholic slushie, the Blood Orange Saki Mist (£10), but Marcus went for a here for a bit of a break.

I did the same in Morocco, opting for an iced mint tea but there are some fab drink options, including a Pomegranate Mimosa (£14)

The USA serves a less boozy slushie, the 0% American Dream (£5) made with Frozen Fanta Wild Cherry, Vanilla Ice Cream, and Raspberry.

By the time we reached Italy it was late afternoon, and we had worked out up quite an appetite. At 5ft 5 and 140lbs, I was also definitely getting a bit tipsy too.

Make time to hydrate

Lunch was timed perfectly at the Italy-themed pavilion, where you can grab a large slice of pizza to line your stomach. Washed down (£10) of course – how could we resist?

Just along from here is Italy’s European sister, Germany but at this point I couldn’t handle any more liquids! I have it on good authority that the Bärenjäger Honey & Bourbon cocktail at is great though £12 for the glass.

And of course, you are spoilt for choice with German beer.

At China, Marcus tried the Canto Loopy (a vodka and cantaloupe mix, £10.50) but I was more interested in sampling the and potato and pea samosas (£5).

The final bar around the EPCOT world can found in Norway, which is a good place to wind things down.

It’s here you can ride the boat ride, meet characters from Frozen and try one of the fan-favourite snacks – the School Bread (£4.50) from the Kringla Bakeri og Kafe. This is a custard roll topped with coconut and easily the best sweet treat in the whole park.

Perfectly complimenting this is the very alcoholic Viking Coffee – a boozy little liquid desert to end the day (£13.50). It’s made with Baileys and Kamora Coffee Liqueur with Coffee-Chocolate Sauce, and garnished with Coffee-Chocolate Crunch.

It’s pizza and prosecco for lunch in ‘Italy’Credit: Helen Wright EPCOT looks beautiful at night, just as your booze crawl is about to endCredit: Alamy One for the road? Helen gets one last margarita to watch the Luminous: The Symphony of Us fireworksCredit: Helen Wright

The day was fun but I wasn’t sure if I’d still be awake for the fireworks show, Luminous: The Symphony of Us, which starts at 9pm.

It’s fair to say that by now I was definitely more drunk than tipsy. My hotel bed was calling for me.

A massive burger and chips was in order to sober up and as we scoffed our tea, I could hear the delighted screams of , a high-speed car ride.

We’d had a fun day just strolling around in the sun but at roughly £75 to get in and almost £400 spent on food and drink between us, I couldn’t help thinking my time would have been better spent riding all the amazing attractions that I can’t do at home.

After a proper dinner and a ride on the calm and easy ‘Living with the Land’ boat ride, we wandered back over to the lake as the sun was setting, finding ourselves right back where we started, at the Mexico pavilion.

It was still going strong with tequila-drinking revellers and a Mariachi band playing in the background.

Was it a good idea to get another sumptuous margarita to sip along with the fireworks?

We’d drunk all around the world today, what’s one more cheeky cheers for the road?