Behind The Seeds Tour ~ Epcot ~ The Land Pavilion
If you’ve been on Soarin’ I’m sure you have seen the big desk on the left of the entrance to the ride. This is where they book the “Behind The Seeds” Tour. In my opinion, this is one of the best tours at Walt Disney World!
When you are at the tour desk you’ll find the hours posted for each tour. This is one of the few tours that you don’t have to book in advance. I often just walk up and sign up. At the time of this writing the tour price is $25 per person and it lasts roughly between 60-75 minutes.
You start the tour by going behind the scenes of The Land pavilion. You’ll take a brief walk behind the scenes to a little room that houses samples of the parasites they use instead of pest control. Once inside you’ll see glass aquariums set up with plants and the little insects and here you’ll get a brief description of what they use to keep their plants pesticide free. We also learn that everything growing in The Land is edible except one plant! We’ll talk about that later.
As we continue our walk, we are guided into the domed room you are familiar with if you’ve ever been on the Living With The Land ride. For this tour we were handed hearing enhancement devices as it was raining outside and the dome tends to echo very loud. So we’ll be using an earpiece for the rest of the tour. Our guide, Camille, was lovely! She was one of the interns and extremely knowledgeable. Camille explained the process of hydroponics being used at The Land and also how they supply a lot of restaurants around Walt Disney World with food they grow right there! For instance, Italy, France, etc., and also their Sunshine Seasonings quick service location in The Land, as well as, their table service location The Garden Grill which is upstairs in The Land.
You wouldn’t believe the abundance of vegetation they have growing. If we take the boat ride, we see it as we float along, but we really cannot see everything. And taking this tour is slow and relaxed so you’re not feeling rushed. There’s plenty of time to ask questions and take amazing photos! I’m pretty sure I was the slowest person that day! I lagged behind so I had some great pics! We saw everything from Stevia to Cacao (Chocolate) growing!
One of the coolest things you’ll see on this tour is how they supply the vegetation with nutrients and water. They have a pump system that runs throughout the location and feeds into the plants from above and sometimes below in what looked to me like PVC pipes. Those hanging plants that are moving along with their exposed roots are passing into machines that water them and add nutrients at every pass. It seems that these plants are growing faster this way and the best part is that they use significantly less water than in a regular field. For instance, Camille told us the one of the plants uses 2.5 gallons of water to grow a certain amount and if it was in the fields it would be over 10 gallons. That’s a huge water saver! Win!
Our tour takes us into the infamous fish room where we see the salmon, tilapia, eels, sometimes crocs and more! We even see some albino fish and hidden Mickey’s! I was able to take lots of pictures as we walked along the tanks and waved to the boats passing by. We had a lingering stop around the spice area. Here we played a little game of “Name that Spice”. She had a treasure chest like trunk that she pulled out numbered spices in a jar and passed them around for us to guess. I have to admit I was able to get all but one (I remembered it at the last second). Camille took her time explaining the spices and this is where she also took questions on anything we might have wanted to know and didn’t already ask her.
At this stop we also had the chance to take our picture with the two Mickey shaped plants. One of them is the oldest plant in The Land. Its over twelve years old!
So, what’s that one plant that is in The Land and not edible? The Mimosa Pudica, otherwise known as the Touch Me Not plant! It’s a super soft leaf plant that when you touch its pretty leaves they close immediately. If you shake the plant ever leaf will close at once and reopen in about ten minutes. It’s adorable and I can tell you the kids weren’t the only ones playing! The grown ups loved it too! And speaking of kids, this tour is perfect for all ages. It’s very relaxed and informative! I urge you to give this inexpensive Disney treasure a go the next time you’re in Epcot. The last tour is usually around 4:30pm so go earlier!
~ Christine Fox
@KetoFitGal @itsChristineFox
