Jack Wagner said:
The heart and soul of Walt Disney World has been changing on almost a daily basis lately, so here we will track the changes that have happened in recent history, as well as keep up to date with changes as they happen. Instead of having multiple threads every week, this one big one can follow the numerous things going on at the park as they happen. Everyone feel free to contribute! I will update this first post with information and links as we see more work done.
The story so far...
The flurry of changes that have been happening recently can be traced back to the big event two years ago that was the removal of the wand icon tower of Spaceship Earth. At the same time, Spaceship Earth's recent acquisition of a new sponsor with Siemens was the final catalyst for it to be closed to be updated and brought into the modern world. Both projects progressed nicely as the park marched on towards its 25th Anniversary, but only one was completed in time. Main entrance plaza changes started with the closure of sales for Leave a Legacy, removing both the advertisement wrapped around the center mirrored pier of Spaceship Earth, and the sales kiosk in the west side of the plaza.
Finally, the big day for many of us arrived, Monday, October 1st, 2007, the Silver Anniversary of EPCOT Center, Celebration 25, a Quarter Century of the 21st Century. Even as the park was celebrating it's special birthday, it continued to evolve, being in the middle of aesthetic changes to Fountain View with a new blue paint job and the loss of some of the clutter added in 1994. This was just the very beginning of changes to Innoventions and its Plaza. Soon the Innoventions signage towers would be removed. Tom Morrow 2.0 had already moved out, but now the subtitle of "The Road to Tomorrow" was gone, too, providing further evidence that something significant was in store.Work began on signs that would be the very beginning of a new era for EPCOT's Science & Technology pavilion. Along with these new signs came along matching window displays. At the front of the park, bag checks would be reorganized with new fences featuring the EPCOT logo, channeling Guest traffic through a single area. With this also came new signs in EPCOT's colors of silver and blue, also sporting the classic logo.
Spaceship Earth's overhaul finally came to an end, bringing the style of the Project Tomorrow post-show out to a beautiful new entrance, including new palm trees and LED lighting around the queue area.
Innoventions West experienced further changes with the conversion of the shoehorned EPCOT Character Connection into the fully fleshed out EPCOT Character Spot, bringing a colorful new interior scheme for most of this section and new window cling designs in the breezeway. On the exhibit side, work on a new exhibit venue saw the reopening of the doors into the breezeway. Even more doors were reopened over on the East side that lead out to the Universe of Energy.
The Fountain of Nations closed for a refurbishment that would hopefully see the removal of the little used stage that covers part of it. While this did not occur, wonderful new LED lighting was installed that made the dancing water shows at night even more spectacular.
Things were quiet for a while, until the Universe of Energy closed for a rehab with the promise of an enhanced ride control system, but also surprisingly resulted in the return of the pavilion's original paint job, evocative of suggesting that there is unbridled power being held within. Martin's head exploded.
This seemingly initiated a new wave of changes to the aesthetics of Future World. Exhibits came and went as they always do in Innoventions, but as the new signs had hinted at, an even bigger change of character was in the works for the pavilion. The next major change was with the flooring in the breezways, as over at Innoventions West, the area changed section by section to a new green flooring with a wavy design. The East side soon followed, with the same wavy pattern in shades of blue this time, giving credence to a dormant rumor that Innoventions East and Innoventions West would become Innoventions Blue and Innoventions Green.
At this point, changes begin occuring now at an accelerated rate. New sleek railings around the Fountain of Nations replaced the originals, and are now branded with a classic Spaceship Earth motif. Near the Plaza side entrances of Innoventions West, the purple and silver signage was removed from the planter area, continuing the trend of decreasing CommuniClutter started by Fountain View two years prior. Inside, the directional road signs had long since disappeared, and new signs appeared in the style of the signage and window clings outside, topped off with what is apparently a plasma ball.
A trend of retro merchandise also continues, following an excellent line of shirts with new glasses and shot glasses with the simple design of blue and the park's name and logo in silver. SirNim's head explodes.
Suggesting that work isn't done on the main entrance plaza as well, the walls over the gift shops on either side of Spaceship Earth are painted blue to match the attraction entrance.
Which now brings us to today, Sunday, November 8th, 2009......
