To this day, Impressions de France remains a mostly untouched EPCOT gem that transports you back to 1982, capturing the everlasting imagination, charm, and wanderlust that define la France. This 18-minute love letter to the country has long been one of my favorite experiences whenever I visit EPCOT.
With the addition of the Beauty & the Beast Sing-Along in 2020, Impressions de France received a beautiful 4K refresh and began sharing the Palais du Cinema with the new sing-along attraction. You might expect the two films to alternate throughout the day, but Impressions continues to operate on a surprisingly limited schedule.
According to both the Walt Disney World website and the My Disney Experience app, Impressions de France opens at 9:00 AM and closes at 9:30 AM (a whopping 2 shows) before returning at 7:00 PM. Evening showtimes are currently listed through 8:45 PM:
Additionally, Impressions de France is available during Early Park Entry for Disney Resort hotel guests from 8:30 AM to 9:00 AM.
There’s nothing quite like starting your EPCOT day with a viewing of Impressions de France followed by breakfast from Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie. If you’re both a planner and an Impressions fan like me, it’s well worth building into your itinerary.
That limited evening schedule recently led to a frustrating experience during my latest visit…
The My Disney Experience app clearly showed showtimes running through 8:45 PM, just 15 minutes before EPCOT’s scheduled closing time and the typical start time of the nightly fireworks spectacular, Luminous. As I made my way back to the France pavilion that evening, I stopped at Les Halles for a quick snack. A cheese plate and half baguette is always a good idea.
We found a spot near the central planter just outside the theater entrance and finished eating with several minutes to spare before 8:45 PM. The countdown display outside Impressions de France was still actively counting down to the next showing, ticking from 16 minutes to 15, 14, and 13 minutes before showtime.
Confident we had made it in time, we headed inside about 10 minutes before the listed 8:45 PM closing time, or presumed last showing. That’s when things got confusing: the Cast Member stationed at the entrance told us we were welcome to enter the lobby, but there would be no additional showings that evening.
When I asked what time the final showing typically begins, she explained that it’s usually somewhere between 8:20 PM and 8:30 PM — not 8:45 PM as listed in the app. It’s hard not to feel a little disappointed. If the attraction’s operating hours indicate showtimes through 8:45 PM, and the outside countdown outside the doors is actively counting down to the next showtime, most guests back in the pavilion would reasonably expect a showing at or very close to that time.
— Don’t worry, you can still look at the props just inside the theater lobby up until 8:45 PM! /sarcasm
As I made my way out of EPCOT during Luminous: The Symphony of Us, I noticed several Cast Members in their Palais du Cinema costumes stationed along the bridge between the France and United Kingdom pavilions helping with crowd control for the nighttime spectacular. Perhaps that’s one reason the final Impressions de France showing ends earlier than advertised. If so, it would at least help explain the discrepancy.
Still, it’s unfortunate for guests hoping to experience one of EPCOT’s most overlooked attractions at night. Between the limited operating hours and the apparent gap between the posted schedule and actual final showing, catching Impressions de France in the evening requires more planning than it probably should.
For a film that remains one of the park’s finest original experiences, it deserves a little more visibility and a little more consistency.
