WOL Demo coming ..

[Brer Panther]

maybe a Mission Space retheme

I'm curious, would it still be space-themed?

I don't expect anything major until after Villains Land opens.

So... not for another five years?

My money is on it not topping the original but being far better than versions 2 and 3 which realistically is probably the best we can hope for.

I think Iger's Disney is perfectly capable of building something just as bad as the second version. I wouldn't put it past them.

Why said "Friends" can't re-vitalize WOL is a mystery to me.

My guess is that it's cheaper to put an attraction in the Magic Eye Theater, or retheme the ride to it, than to revitalize the long-abandoned Wonders of Life pavilion?

 

[Nickm2022]

My pitches
1. Demoing WOL allows for a lot more flexibility and all for it
2. retheme Space keep the outside but gut the inside into a fam friendly wall E dark ride about space
3. put coco into Mexico, and take out the restaurant and make it queue, if need be build a new restaurant outside.
4. new figment and new paint
5. add a fountain of some type in World Celebration
6. Update interior of Land and Seas
7. new country(s) in WS. Personally want Brazil and could see UAE being added given the Disneyland announcement with the GOV, and also they could throw Aladdin in there

 

[Nickm2022]

Also still want a MARY Pop ride for UK and a SSE update, just not the ones they pitched last time

 

[ChrisFL]

3. put coco into Mexico, and take out the restaurant and make it queue, if need be build a new restaurant outside.

Bold idea...I think I like it (having always heard mixed reviews of the restaurant...other than the obvious scenery)

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Ratatouille? I think that's a good case study on it serving that purpose.

Besides Frozen the ips in WS are pretty fitting

 

[ChrisFL]

Besides Frozen the ips in WS are pretty fitting

I know this doesn't really count, but having Aladdin characters in Morocco is very odd

 

[flynnibus]

I know and it is extremely disheartening. Then again they have already lost me as a customer so I guess they can do whatever they want.

No one needs living postcards in EPCOT to try to advertise their country anymore... the old model is dead. Be it Disney IP, or big brand remakes into stores.. something would have to happen. At least with Disney we get attractions...

 

[flynnibus]

There wasn’t really a tipping point with World Showcase because it never reached attraction critical mass to begin with. It was basically just left completely underdeveloped for years with two middling rides

Yet.. carried a top 5 theme park for decades. "attraction critical mass" in WS clearly wasn't what the park needed to be successful.

 

[ChrisFL]

No one needs living postcards in EPCOT to try to advertise their country anymore... the old model is dead. Be it Disney IP, or big brand remakes into stores.. something would have to happen. At least with Disney we get attractions...

Agreed. We sometimes can forget the context of what people had access to in the era that EPCOT Center was being developed....Cable TV and VCR's weren't even a thing yet! People had few options to see how different countries are by those means unless it was broadcasted on a few existing TV channels or documentary movies somewhere (and books of course)

 

[flynnibus]

Agreed. We sometimes can forget the context of what people had access to in the era that EPCOT Center was being developed....Cable TV and VCR's weren't even a thing yet! People had few options to see how different countries are by those means unless it was broadcasted on a few existing TV channels or documentary movies somewhere (and books of course)

Back when "Italian" and chinese takeout was the extent of foreign cuisine for most of america

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Yet.. carried a top 5 theme park for decades. "attraction critical mass" in WS clearly wasn't what the park needed to be successful.

That's because WS became appreciated for what it is, not what it allegedly attempted to be (tourism promotion)

WS is like Main Street, but on a much larger scale and with far more variety and quantity when it comes to architecture, landscaping, shopping and dining. People appreciate and treat the space as a walkable neighbourhood. A place to meander and explore at your own pace, and to gather eat and view entertainment. It's far more popular than any version of Downtown Disney because it is so much nicer and offers things the latter doesn't (Circle Vision shows, rides, character meet 'n greets), all bundled with admission to the rest of the park.

No other Disney theme park has a comparable experience, that's also as big as other Disney theme parks.

 

[jah4955]

That's because WS became appreciated for what it is, not what it allegedly attempted to be (tourism promotion)

WS is like Main Street, but on a much larger scale and with far more variety and quantity when it comes to architecture, landscaping, shopping and dining. People appreciate and treat the space as a walkable neighbourhood. A place to meander and explore at your own pace, and to gather eat and view entertainment. It's far more popular than any version of Downtown Disney because it is so much nicer and offers things the latter doesn't (Circle Vision shows, rides, character meet 'n greets), all bundled with admission to the rest of the park.

No other Disney theme park has a comparable experience, that's also as big as other Disney theme parks.

THIS! &&&& You just reminded me of something @Animaniac93-98 I remember a rumor from way back that they were thinking of making the WS part of EPCOT free admission like Downtown Disney. I'm not saying that I believed it for a single moment, and I don't see how they could have pulled such an idea off, I'm simply saying that you just triggered that old memory!

 

[HMF]

I know this doesn't really count, but having Aladdin characters in Morocco is very odd

And borderline insensitive.

 

[James Alucobond]

Yet.. carried a top 5 theme park for decades. "attraction critical mass" in WS clearly wasn't what the park needed to be successful.

That wasn't really my point. I meant that, as rides go, it never really had enough to consider it as having "tipped over" an edge at some point where the existing experience was destroyed, largely because attractions never were much of the experience, and what exists will likely remain regardless of whether or not more attractions are added.

And while I agree that it works (and obviously has worked for many years) well enough without them, I see no reason to resist rides in that area of the park in general, obvious thematic issues of the IP mandate aside. They were always planned, they just never came.

 

[Haymarket2008]

Despite my nostalgia for the space (really, the contents of the space), I think a demo of WoL is probably the way to go. It never really contributed in any meaningful way to the architectural landscape of Future World and it has been effectively dead for almost 20 years now.

The land could be better used.

 

[Nickm2022]

I also personally like the idea of having an equal amount of pavilions on each side of former FW. 3 in the east, and 3 in the west instead of 4, plus think it just looks out of place

 

[OrlandoRising]

If Daddy Josh gets picked to be the new CEO and wants to really get in with the legacy EPCOT crowd, he would do well to make certain that any new version of Imagination included a return of the Dreamfinder. Just from a merchandising opportunity alone it would be a win.

There are lots of good reasons to do an Imagination re-do, merchandising included. But "getting in with the legacy Epcot crowd" isn't one of them.

It really is frustrating that World Showcase has now devolved into IP showcase to such an extent that we are actually suggesting numerous IP attractions for each pavilion.

I would look at it a different way. So clearly the expectation is that brand-new Disney park rides need to be based around some kind of established IP. Starting with some of the same expectations and restrictions as actual Imagineers makes for a much better conversation on this board, in my opinion.

Sure, posters on here may want an exact replica of Horizons (or to just generally make it 1982 again), but unrealistic suggestions turns threads into nostalgia-fueled, "back in my day" gripe sessions. Is that really a worthwhile dialogue?

 

[flynnibus]

That's because WS became appreciated for what it is, not what it allegedly attempted to be (tourism promotion)

WS is like Main Street, but on a much larger scale and with far more variety and quantity when it comes to architecture, landscaping, shopping and dining. People appreciate and treat the space as a walkable neighbourhood. A place to meander and explore at your own pace, and to gather eat and view entertainment. It's far more popular than any version of Downtown Disney because it is so much nicer and offers things the latter doesn't (Circle Vision shows, rides, character meet 'n greets), all bundled with admission to the rest of the park.

I dunno.. do you frame it as 'atmosphere' and 'character'? Is it the variety that makes it, or the detail? I'm of the thought that WS basically got adopted and people found their own happiness with the space. I mean, if you've never been to WS before, does it hit as hard as those people who have spent the last 15yrs with it?

I feel like it's become more of the adult hangout... where people get to be entertained with food and drink choices, but for some reason like the floating openness of it.. vs a street of inside venues.

I struggle to capture what I think makes it work through today.. because for me individually I think all it's uniqueness was outgrown and surpassed in the 90s. I don't personally linger in WS any.. I love AA, but walk past most the rest of WS.

 

[flynnibus]

And while I agree that it works (and obviously has worked for many years) well enough without them, I see no reason to resist rides in that area of the park in general, obvious thematic issues of the IP mandate aside. They were always planned, they just never came.

But that's kinda 'other than that Ms Lincoln, , how was the play' kind of phrasing isn't it? People haven't been bothered by the idea of adding rides/etc... it's that in the modern Disney adding any rides only come with adding Disney IP. Rides that basically just share a name or generalization with the pavilion.. vs actually meshing with it's takeaways or mission. The two are not really separable in the current company.

In a lot of ways, it can be borderlined insulting. If you were trying to showcase your culture or history.. and then someone says "well, here's aladdin" and you are like.. why, because of it's setting? It doesn't actually support anything about the actual pavilion.

I thought your other post was very dismissive of what WS was... using terms like "underdeveloped", "middling", "undelivered" in terms of what attractions WS had delivered.

 

[James Alucobond]

I thought your other post was very dismissive of what WS was... using terms like "underdeveloped", "middling", "undelivered" in terms of what attractions WS had delivered.

Many attractions and pavilions were "undelivered" despite being announced and promised. Many pavilions to this day remain "underdeveloped" despite the broad concept working (e.g. Italy, African Outpost, Canada). The two classic rides were also generally considered "middling" and never had lines of any note, even if I personally liked Maelstrom (but ran out of the post-show as a kid). It's not dismissive. It's the truth. That doesn't mean there's nothing great there, just that much of what was promised never materialized.